Introduction

For longer than most commentators expected, that declining number of new products continued to support growth levels of the pharmaceutical industry way above those of the global economy. But it became clear several years ago that there would come a point where the trickle of new products reaching the market would no longer offset those reaching patent expiry. It is big pharma the Top 20 global pharmaceutical companies by global sales which stands to feel this ultimate impact most severely. It is therefore big pharma whose strategies and practices are more likely to need transforming than any other players in pharmaceuticals. The search for a single new business model is nave, and that in any case, different big pharma companies need rather different strategies. The pharmaceutical industry is often criticized by insiders as well as outsiders for not being open enough to new ideas from outside the industry, or of being slow to adopt them.