Skip to main content
Log in

The problems with today's pharmaceutical business—an outsider's view

  • Commentary
  • Published:

From Nature Biotechnology

View current issue Submit your manuscript

The pharmaceutical industry must devote greater resources, investment and effort to address its anemic drug pipeline in the long term, rather than focusing on its bottom line in the near term.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Figure 1: The number of big pharma deals with biotech have fallen in all stages.
Figure 2: The number and value of biotech acquisitions by pharma have fallen.
Figure 3: Licensing volumes and payments are declining as big pharma shifts priorities.

References

  1. Anonymous. Results announcement for the third quarter 2010 (GlaxoSmithKline, London) http://www.gsk.com/investors/reports/q32010/q32010.pdf (21 October 2010).

  2. Anonymous. NICE rebuffs Tarceva. BioCentury Extra, p.3 (16 June 2010).

  3. PricewaterhouseCoopers. Pharma 2020, Virtual R&D, Which Path Will You Take? (PricewaterhouseCoopers, New York City, 2008).

  4. Spek, H. CLSA Healthcare Forum, New York, December 1, 2010. http://en.sanofi-aventis.com/binaries/EM_conference_Spek_Web_tcm28-29638.pdf

  5. Shaffer, C. Nat. Biotechnol. 28, 881–882 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Ernst & Young. Beyond Borders—Global Biotechnology Report (E&Y, New York, 2009).

  7. Anonymous. Big pharma aims for reinvention. Financial Times (12 May 2010).

  8. Behnke, N. & Sueltenschmidt, N. Changing Pharma's Innovation DNA (Bain & Company, Boston, 2010).

    Google Scholar 

  9. Ledford, H. Nature 468, 487 (2010).

    Article  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Oliver Wyman. Licensing to Win (Oliver Wyman, New York, 2008). http://www.oliverwyman.com/ow/pdf_files/OW_EN_HLS_2008_LicensingtoWin.pdf

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Mark Kessel.

Ethics declarations

Competing interests

The author declares no competing financial interests.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Kessel, M. The problems with today's pharmaceutical business—an outsider's view. Nat Biotechnol 29, 27–33 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1748

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nbt.1748

  • Springer Nature America, Inc.

This article is cited by

Navigation