Bleak outlook for medium-size pharma companies, says report
Medium-sized research-based pharmaceutical companies are facing a bleak future, predicts a new report from Decision Resources, a leading research and advisory firm focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues.
Medium-sized research-based pharmaceutical companies are facing a bleak future, predicts a new report from Decision Resources, a leading research and advisory firm focusing on pharmaceutical and healthcare issues.
According to the report, The Outlook for the World Pharmaceutical Industry to 2015, their fate will be to merge with others, diversify into related fields such as generics, survive as niche players, or perish altogether. There seems to be little long-term future for companies outside the current top 20 pharma firms, it forecasts.
'It's really a numbers game,' said Tracy DeGregorio, director at Decision Resources. 'R&d expenditure for each of the top 12 companies approached or exceeded US$2bn, and for some it was well over $3bn. An annual investment of this magnitude can be made only by a very limited number of firms, and is probably the lowest threshold for a company that wishes to stay in the game indefinitely.
'Mid-tier European pharmaceutical companies are at particular risk, as they are too numerous and too small.'