EDITOR’S PAGE
Mixed start for pharma in 2012
J
ust taking a look back at developments in the pharma and biotech sectors over the past three months shows what mixed fortunes the industry is having. Pharma, and Big Pharma in particular, is still having difficulties, as shown by the number of ‘restructuring’ announcements made recently but, on the other hand, the major companies are making new investments in their businesses, some of them quite substantial ones.
Compare and contrast For example, we’ve seen announcements from Novartis on restructuring its US business; Alnylam cutting its workforce by a third; AstraZeneca having to make a large number of job cuts; Skye Pharma ‘reorganising’ its activities; and another large set of job cuts at Takeda Pharmaceuticals. Contrast these developments with some of the good news: a new US facility expansion by Bayer HealthCare; a new R&D centre opened by Novo Nordisk; Watson’s global R&D centre; and the biggest of them all, GSK’s £500 million investment in its facilties in
the UK, including a major investment in new manufacturing capacity at the company’s Ulverston facility.
Improved outlook?
So, are the pharmaceutical sector’s fortunes turing around? Has the industry at last got itself into the position where companies are now truly efficient and, having ‘rationalised’ their structures, are able to look more to the future and make large investments, in particular in manufacturing?
Setting priorities
I don’t think it’s very clear where exactly pharma companies are headed - for most of last year, the emphasis was on phasing out internal R&D facilities and establishing strategic alliances to boost drug development pipelines, especially by working with biotechs with promising drug candidates. Lately, however, as illustrated by the examples I’ve quoted above, investments in internal R&D are still taking place. Similarly, in some cases Big Pharma companies have reduced their manufacturing capabilities but others are
Tom Mulligan
making large investments in this area. It seems there’s no clear strategy for boosting the fortunes of the sector, but of course one trend that should bring success is the establishment of R&D and product development partnerships. Again, glancing back over the news from recent months, this is an ongoing activity with many collaborations having been formed. This is one area where Big Pharma should continue to put its money - how it prioritises what types of facilities it should be investing in, ie R&D or manufacturing, is another matter. It will be interesting to see how these investments affect companies’ financial results, and of course first quarter figures will become available over the next couple of weeks or so. The impact of new investments should give guidelines to the way forward!
Tom Mulligan, MSc Editor - sp2 Inter-Active
4 sp2 Inter-Active March/April 2012
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