ABSTRACT
In pharmaceuticals, the 1980s and 1990s saw easy and accelerating sales success i n global pharmaceutical markets (see Table 8.1). At the time, there were enough significant products in the pipeline to sustain product brands post-patent expiry. The industry focused on blockbusters, with key measures such as the speed to the first $ 1 billion in annual sales being a crucial measure of success (as this increased the likelihood of achieving peak sales in the shortest possible time frame). This was compounded by the attitude at the time that nothing could be done about generics anyway, and the future was going to be led by research and development (R&D) productivity, sales and marketing critical mass, and aggressive patent defense.
