Monday, June 28, 2010

The new drugs don't work for big pharma, report shows | Business | The Guardian

The new drugs don't work for big pharma, report shows | Business | The Guardian

There is fresh evidence of the dwindling pipeline of new drugs from the pharmaceuticals industry in research today showing just 7% of sales come from medicines launched in the past five years.

The report by CMR International, owned by Thomson Reuters, shows that the bulk of sales at the world's leading pharmaceuticals is derived from an ageing portfolio of drugs, while the number of medicines failing during late-stage testing is sharply on the rise.

The problem is the "patent cliff" – after a few years products come off patent and generic drugmakers are allowed to produce cheaper versions.

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