Big pharma suffers as patents expire… but great opportunities for generics companies
As recently reported in the Nature News Blog, pharma companies are suffering as some of their best-selling products continue to fall off the “patent cliff”.
Astra Zeneca reported a 15% drop in revenue in Q3 of 2012, which was blamed primarily on expiring patents by the company’s Chief Executive Pascal Soriot.
Similarly, Sanofi reported that sales were down by 3.1% and its earnings per share fell by 14.5%, with its loss of the patent on cancer drug oxaliplatin partly to blame. There was slightly better news for Novartis whose sales only dropped by 2%, and they explained that newly launched drugs had helped to make up for lost patents.
Despite the doom and gloom for the companies involved, expiring patents open up the market to a generic version of drugs, which offers great opportunities for generic pharmaceutical companies.
If you’re thinking of exploring the generic pharmaceuticals market, or would like to find out more about generics, you might be interested in our comprehensive training course on generics – the 3 Day MBA in Generics, next taking place in London from 19 – 21 November.
