Pharma R&D Annual Review 2010
Weathering the storm?
...it is certainly a fascinating time to be following pipeline R&D, and as ever, Citeline Drug Intelligence will be there at the cutting edge, providing the data and trends for the industry...Although many positions have been axed from the pharmaceutical industry in the past year, it would appear that R&D pipelines, have at least so far, survived relatively unscathed by the financial crisis and economic woes of the rest of the world. Although pipeline expansion might have slowed, innovative drug launches were scarce and the number of late-stage R&D drugs still looks a bit paltry, the fact is that there are more drugs in total, more drugs in clinical trials, more drug targets and more drug development companies than ever before. Compared to other industries, it would appear that pharma might be successfully weathering the storm thus far.
However, dark clouds may be gathering on the horizon. With the recession in developed countries having largely bottomed out, many economies now have to turn to the mountains of debt which have built up during the crisis, and cuts - sometimes on an unprecedented scale - are forecast. In many countries, talk of cutting of healthcare budgets is considered politically very risky, as the recent UK election campaign has keenly demonstrated. However, it is naïve to think that that some of the cost-savings needed will not be sought from national pharmaceutical bills. This will pile further pressure onto an industry already facing loss of revenues from patent expiries and a blockage in the pipeline at Phase II. What the industry really needs to do is reduce attrition at Phase II via better candidate selection earlier on. If it cannot achieve this - and our data this year indicates that there are few signs of improvement in this area as yet - it might then face a stark choice. With budgets for sales and marketing already pared back, should it scale back R&D to further cut costs, thereby running the risk of squeezing the supply of new products which are its lifeblood? Or should it play the long game and continue to spend heavily on its pipelines to ensure future growth? Will it try to get the best of both worlds via further mergers and acquisitions, despite their historically questionable benefit on return on investment? Whichever way the industry turns to protect its profits, it is certainly a fascinating time to be following pipeline R&D, and as ever, Citeline Drug Intelligence will be there at the cutting edge, providing the data and trends for the industry as they emerge.
Ian Lloyd
Editorial Director
Citeline Drug Intelligence
As a Citeline Drug Intelligence Services subscriber, you can routinely perform some of the analyses discussed in this article. You can use them to observe trends over time, to keep an eye on competitors, and to aid business decisions. We have also added a sixteenth year of data into the Trends module of Pharmaprojects based on the 2010 data, to further assist you.
