What's next for the Pharma industry?

The Atlantic has a very interesting article looking at the future of the Pharma industry. With most of the patents set to expire at the end of next year, many companies are also facing pipelines with few products and low approval rates from the FDA. With the clinical trials being the most expensive parts medical development, in addition to the targets of new drugs being very small portions of the population, many drugs are shelved or are out of financial reach for many of the patients who need to use them.

Pharmaceutical companies are blamed for focusing on marketing at the expense of innovation: they allegedly kill promising compounds because of fears of small markets, then concentrate on “me too” drugs that aren’t really any better than their competition’s. Or they tweak existing drugs in ways that don’t necessarily make the drugs any more effective, but do give companies a new patented drug for which they can charge the Earth.

Read the article here.

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