Some of the world’s biggest drug companies, including GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, are facing their worst crisis in decades. Shrinking drug pipelines, increased competition from generics and a slew of patent expirations are putting them in financial danger.

“For the first time in history, the industry will have negative growth in 2011,” says Alexis de Rosnay, global co-head of health care at Lehman Brothers.

Richard Girling, global co-head of health care at Merrill Lynch, says: “The problem is not so much the size of companies but the concentration and reliance on single products. This has been exacerbated by a lack of innovation over the years.”
In the United States alone, drugs worth more than $62 billion in 2006 sales are due to go off patent between 2008 and 2012, which means rival companies will be able to produce generic versions of the same drugs.

Drug companies have acknowledged that radical changes in research and development are needed in order for the industry to reinvent itself.

Sources: FT.com May 7, 2008

Read Dr. Mercola’s comments at: http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2008/05/31/the-beginning-of-the-end-for-big-drugmakers.aspx?source=nl