Big Pharma Doomed if it Doesn't Change, Says Eli Lilli Chairman

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As reported in The Best Years in Life Health News

 

Big Pharma "Doomed" if it Doesn't Change, Says Eli Lilly Chairman

Thursday, July 03, 2008 by: David Gutierrez

 

 

(NaturalNews) With patents set to expire on major products and no new

blockbusters on the horizon, the pharmaceutical industry must adapt or

die, the chairman of Eli Lilly & Co. has said.

 

"I think the industry is doomed if we don't change," said Sidney Taurel.

 

The expiration of patents on top moneymaking drugs is expected to

reduce the top drug companies' profits by a total of $67 billion

between 2007 and 2012, or 50 percent of those companies' combined 2007

sales in the United States. This decline in income is expected to be

the industry's first in 40 years.

 

Once a drug's patent expires after 20 years, the market is opened up to

generic versions, which are typically sold at a cost close to that of

production, in contrast to the 90 or 95 percent profit margins enjoyed

by patent-protected drugs. Once the patent expired on Merck's

cholesterol drug Zocor, for example, the company's revenues from the

drug dropped an estimated 82 percent.

 

 

 

 

 

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Drugs set to go generic by 2012 include Lipitor, the best-selling drug

in history, which grossed Pfizer $13 billion in 2006. Also due to lose

their patent protection are asthma medication Singulair, blood-pressure

drug Cozaar, and osteoporosis drug Fosamax, which currently bring in 44

percent of Merck's income.

 

Meanwhile, no new drugs have emerged on the horizon to take the place

of these money-makers. Compared with 1995-1999, 43 percent fewer new

drugs came to market between 2002 and 2006.

 

"There haven't been any new therapies that are proven to reduce death

and disability for atherosclerosis since the introduction of the

statins in the late 1980s," said Richard C. Pasternak, Merck's vice

president of Cardiovascular Clinical Research.

 

As a result, Moody's Investors Service has lowered the pharmaceutical

industry's outlook from "stable" to "negative," and investment has

dropped drastically.

 

Many in the pharmaceutical industry

are hoping to shift their focus to biotechnology, where the laws

currently do not allow the development of generic drugs. High-grossing

biotech drugs include cancer drug Avastin, which costs $4,400 per

month, and Gaucher disease treatment Cerezyme, which costs $200,000 per

year.