Trashing the state of the pharma industry
Last week, consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers released a surprisingly critical report on the state of the pharmaceutical industry. “Pharma 2020: The Vision - Which Path Will You Take?” indicates the current industry business model is both “…economically unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly enough to produce the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets.”
Among the fundamental changes the report forecasts for the industry are:
- a shift in focus from treatment to prevention
- pharmaceutical companies will provide total health care packages
- a move from the linear R&D or pipeline process to in-life testing and live licensing, in collaboration with regulators and health care providers
- the disappearance of the the traditional blockbuster sales model
- expansion of the pool of basic research which pharma currently taps, particularly that which exists in Asia
More:
- press release: “Global Pharma Market Predicted to More Than Double In Value to $1.3 Trillion by 2020: Industry Must Transform to Capitalise On Opportunities”
- executive summary*
- download the full report *
- podcast *
*Free registration required for access

Helen Kula sources and delivers market data and intelligence to entrepreneurs, high-growth companies and MaRS staff and advisors. She is an active member of Toronto’s information professional and librarian communities.