Some of the world's biggest drugs companies - including Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca - are facing their worst crisis in decades, as their future revenues come under threat from shrinking drug pipelines, increased competition from generic rivals and a slew of patent expiries.
"For the first time in history, the industry will have negative growth in 2011," says Alexis de Rosnay, global co-head of healthcare at Lehman Brothers. This is a timebomb the sector has known about for some time. Its last big answer, up to about three or four years ago, was to pursue large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
AstraZeneca was created in a £52bn deal in 1999. GSK resulted from a £120bn deal in 2001. Pfizer launched a $53bn takeover of Pharmacia in 2003 and Sanofi-Aventis was formed from a $64bn merger in 2004.
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