Pharmaceutical Technologist - September/October 2008 - (Page 10)

Morpheus Fearful pharma A dark cloud of fear hangs above the industry, eroding the ability to remain productive. Morpheus O ur industry prides itself on developing groundbreaking new medicines that will advance medical treatment. It likes to portray itself as a technologically innovative force and justifies the high pricing of its products on the basis that it needs to continue investing heavily in research. If you compare the R&D investment-to-sales ratio for most pharmaceutical companies, the value obtained is considerably higher than for many other technology-based industries. However, if you look beyond this and examine how productive the pharmaceutical industry has been during the last decade, you will find that it appears to be on the decline. Only a few companies merit the tag of being innovative as the rest mainly focus on line extensions and iterations of previous products. Many companies fear change and struggle to take the risks necessary to break new ground; if there is a way to continue with the status quo then this is the route they will take. New drugs still emerge from their pipelines, giving the impression that these companies are productive, and it is only when we compare them with other more innovative organizations that we see them for what they really are. Nevertheless, they get away with it for a while and it is only after a period of a few years, when the gaps relative to others have extended too far, that they are unable to hide. By this time the fear of doing something new has led to the company’s downfall. After all, the best way to make money is to produce something innovative, as that is all the market will accept if you want to charge a high price. Fear of the unknown This ‘fear of anything new’ is intrinsic to many of the senior people in the pharmaceutical industry. A number of independent organizations have posed questions regarding innovation to executives in the pharmaceutical industry and their counterparts from companies in other technology-based sectors. These questions tend to centre on how they arrive at their decisions and what factors they consider 10 SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2008 PHARMACEUTICAL TECHNOLOGIST BLOOMimage/Getty Images

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Pharmaceutical Technologist - September/October 2008 Contents Industry Highlights Morpheus Market Watch Smoke and Mirrors Reducing Data Burdens Keeping it Simple Bringing Pharma Up to Date

Pharmaceutical Technologist - September/October 2008

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