from SLATE: > Pharmaceutical Companies Back Away From New Research >Research and development jobs for big pharmaceutical companies aren't as >readily available as they once were, Reuters reports, and there's a reason >behind the cutbacks: patent expirations. Over the next five years, $142 >billion worth of prescription drug patents are scheduled to expire, and Big >Pharma companies are bracing for the financial hit of cheaper generics. This >is "the biggest 'cliff' of patent expiries in the history of the >pharmaceuticals industry," Reuters says, and when you take into account new >regulatory measures and a decline in new drugs launched annually, it's no >wonder that companies are acting early. Despite a jump in new drug approvals >in the mid-1990s, "the industry today produces roughly the same number of new >medicines that it did 60 years ago," and there have been fewer blockbuster >products. As a result, companies are pulling back from research and shifting >focus toward other areas: breaking into emerging markets and focusing on >nonprescription drugs. In India, drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline has been pumping >millions into promoting a malted milk drink for the elderly. Many companies >are also buying into smaller biotech firms in the hopes that innovation will >come from the outside. But if things remain on course, a health care >investment firm manager tells Reuters, "In the 21st century … Big Pharma will >primarily be a distribution business."
>Read original story in Reuters >[http://www.reuters.com/article/newsOne/idUSTRE65F25Q20100616] | Wednesday, >June 16, 2010 < -- Jim Devine "Those who take the most from the table Teach contentment. Those for whom the taxes are destined Demand sacrifice. Those who eat their fill speak to the hungry of wonderful times to come. Those who lead the country into the abyss Call ruling too difficult For ordinary folk." – Bertolt Brecht. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
