ABSTRACT
The pharmaceutical sector represents a fairly unique industry among the multitude of businesses that exist in the world. One of the key factors in the world of pharma is that the development time of an average drug can last for 10–15 years, dwarfing the development times for most technology, software, and even engineering products. Furthermore, pharma research and development (R&D) scientists frequently have to assess and analyze between 5,000 and 10,000 compounds before they are able to synthesize one successful drug. Another interesting aspect of the pharmaceutical industry is that it continues to be "socially profitable," so to speak. The composition of the world pharmaceutical market is shifting from the developed countries toward the developing countries with a large and relatively wealthy population. Some experts argue that pharma companies with well-balanced project portfolios will outperform those that attempt to build their portfolios under the slogan "we will take only winner products".
