Pharmaceutical Executive-09-01-2012

Busting the Tape

Shareholder value now depends on finding pockets of "good" growth, in segments with fewer players, and where expenses can be tightly controlled.

Europe's fiscal crisis is becoming a new rallying cry for patient groups-but regional unity is still elusive.

Bending the cost curve back to valuing the cycle of life.

Specialized knowledge about disease and treatment is no longer the exclusive province of practicing physicians. Patient voices are increasing in volume, along with their roles in treatment decisions.

"Payers have evolved to become powerful global contenders with pharma for increasingly limited funding of drug budgets."

Autumn is a good time to present our annual post on how well the industry is doing in harvesting value for shareholders. Our diverse list of 24 companies, drawn from Big Pharma to the established biotechs, presents a similarly mixed picture on returns: smaller firms with a distinct customer base and tight oversight of costs are by and large proving more adept at delivering the strong growth that investors still expect from this business.

There is much talk today about "open innovation" in business and research forums-but what exactly does it mean? How does open innovation as a concept apply to the pharmaceutical sector? Does it signal a change in the way pharmaceutical companies approach research and innovation?