Ursula Drost and Edmund Hain, Managing Directors, Business Consulting Network International
June 8, 2010. The pharmaceutical industry is facing increased pressure amid rising costs for research and development of new drugs and a declining number of new market-ready medications. Many drugs will lose their patent protection in the coming years. In the United States alone, patents for drugs with combined annual revenues of $70 billion will expire in the next few years.
What’s more, the era of blockbuster drugs seems to be drawing to a close, so companies conducting pharmaceutical research will have to amortize the R&D costs of new drugs from a smaller volume of revenue.
The market is getting more and more competitive, with pressure coming not only from generic drug manufacturers but also from new players, especially in Asia.
