Overview

Since the first edition of this book seven years ago, the pharmaceutical sector has undergone a sea change in restructuring and redefinition. That change has forced out several hundred thousand employees, primarily sales representatives, sales managers, discovery researchers, pharmacologists, toxicologists, and clinical trial managers. The destruction of jobs has been largely in response to value destruction in the pharmaceutical business model (loss of one-half to two-thirds of shareholder value for the sector as a whole), something rarely seen over the two centuries of the sector’s history.

There are clear factors which have converged to change the business model and push the pharmaceutical sector toward a new reality – one which should create a more efficient and productive approach to drug innovation and commercialization for the surviving companies. These companies are exploring many new approaches which they believe will produce success. They are being joined by new players – coming from Asia and the maturing biotechnology, pharmaceutical services, and generics industries – to bring about a new landscape for pharmaceutical innovation and a more complex ecosystem of competition and cooperation.