The Future of the Pharmaceutical Industry

In the future of healthcare and specifically the pharmaceutical industry, the era of blockbuster drugs that treat large populations will likely wane. This chapter reviews current trends in the pharmaceutical industry, particularly highlighting those that represent shifts in the industry regarding the manner in which they conduct research and development related to changes in healthcare economics. Both a historical context for these changes as well as likely changes in the industry in the short and long term are projected. After more than a decade of cost-cutting, restructuring, transformations, and turnarounds, the pharmaceutical industry would appear to be suffering from change fatigue. Change has been at the forefront of pharmaceutical executives’ minds for a long time, and pressures have been rising steadily. In the pharmaceutical industry, innovation is often best measured by the number of new chemical entity drugs approved by the FDA.