The 97.1% club

macaque_2

Today Atavorstatin (Lipitor) went off patent. It was developed in 1985 and has been a block buster for Pfizer earning $10b p.a. in recent years. In the US, the price of a month's supply of Lipitor could drop from $140 to less than $5. This year, Pfizer have closed most of their Sandwich plant in Kent and there is more to come. Over the next 3 years, over $60b (annual revenues) of branded medicines will go off patent.

When I was on the HPC website, it used to irritate the hell out of me when people came up with complacent line that we are living in a post industrial age where we "generate ideas and the rest of the world pay us". Thats tripe! India and China are turning out top quality graduates by the train load and they have billions of people queing up to work hard.

People in the UK now sit around biting their fingernails over the UK's credit rating, interest rates, house prices, employment, pensions etc.
We don't have to become a nation of Starbucks waiters and BTL landlords. There are better alternatives but it does involve hard work and enterprise. And ........ if people earn more from real entrise, these whinging home owners could get a decent price for their moth eaten houses.

A bit random but I blame the wine.

Simian Macaque ADHD
Chairman, CEO, MD, CTO, CFO - 70% Club

macaque_2

Coincidence or just another example of amazing foresight by the 70% club?

LONDON — US coffee chain Starbucks announced on Thursday that it will create 5,000 jobs in Britain over the next five years as part of expansion plans that will greatly increase the number of drive-through outlets.

So the answer for the UK more Starbucks outlets.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gCalJtc-3YG9iuiMJ2IXbnVDewOQ?docId=CNG.104a1c9e9c71e179b33042a465c95d6c.221

Dan:_4

macaque wrote: »

People in the UK now sit around biting their fingernails over the UK's credit rating, interest rates, house prices, employment, pensions etc.

I doubt the majorty of the general public give a !!!!!! to be honest.

John_Pierpoint

Canute like they think a strike can change the terms of trade, population demography and the pension time bomb.

neverdespairgirl

John_Pierpoint wrote: »

Canute like they think a strike can change the terms of trade, population demography and the pension time bomb.

Not at all like King Canute - he knew he couldn't hold back the tide. He was using it to demonstrate the limits of his power.

purch

This year, Pfizer have closed most of their Sandwich plant in Kent

It is a scandal.

It was an icon, something that set us apart, a symbol of what put the Great into Britain..........now been superceded by the Noodle Pot !!! :eek:

IronWolf

They've had 15 years though to develop new drugs. It's just the nature of the pharmaceutical industry, you have to keep researching and discovering, or you'll just go bankrupt.

macaque_2

IronWolf wrote: »

They've had 15 years though to develop new drugs. It's just the nature of the pharmaceutical industry, you have to keep researching and discovering, or you'll just go bankrupt.

I believe the real problem is that the big pharmaceutical companies have been chasing rainbows for the past few years. It has been obvious for 30 years that new patented drugs were getting progressively more expensive to find. In 1970, the industry were discovering around 10 new chemical entitities (NCE) per $1b of investment. Today that number has dropped to 0.5 NCE's per $1b investment (inflation adjusted).

The rising stars in the Industry are companies like Rambaxy, Dr Reddys and Teva and much of their growth is coming through off patent medicines. The old pharma companies have looked to lawyers, protectionism and skull duggery to protect their profits. They lock governments into high medecine prices, they file vexatious patents, they distort clinical trials and they actively undermine small companies with cheaper alternatives to their products.

I think the real problem relates to goverments being too soft on powerful interest groups like big companies. Commercial progress should be a Darwinian process but this is obstructed by unholy alliances between big companies and government. Why did the biggest breakthrough in ulcer treatment come from Australia? The answer is that Australia has no home grown pharmaceutical industry. There were free to investigate the use of antibiotics for ulcer treatment (which eliminates the need for years of ulcer pills). In the US and Europe, such research was actively obstructed by the pharmaceutical industry. There are just countless other examples of such anti competetive behaviour.

JonnyBravo

macaque wrote: »

I believe the real problem is that the big pharmaceutical companies have been chasing rainbows for the past few years. It has been obvious for 30 years that new patented drugs were getting progressively more expensive to find. In 1970, the industry were discovering around 10 new chemical entitities (NCE) per $1b of investment. Today that number has dropped to 0.5 NCE's per $1b investment (inflation adjusted).

The rising stars in the Industry are companies like Rambaxy, Dr Reddys and Teva and much of their growth is coming through off patent medicines. The old pharma companies have looked to lawyers, protectionism and skull duggery to protect their profits. They lock governments into high medecine prices, they file vexatious patents, they distort clinical trials and they actively undermine small companies with cheaper alternatives to their products.

I think the real problem relates to goverments being too soft on powerful interest groups like big companies. Commercial progress should be a Darwinian process but this is obstructed by unholy alliances between big companies and government. Why did the biggest breakthrough in ulcer treatment come from Australia? The answer is that Australia has no home grown pharmaceutical industry. There were free to investigate the use of antibiotics for ulcer treatment (which eliminates the need for years of ulcer pills). In the US and Europe, such research was actively obstructed by the pharmaceutical industry. There are just countless other examples of such anti competetive behaviour.

Agree with much, if not most, of what you say. But the game is changing dramatically now and has been for the last few years.
For it is also the case now that companies such as Ranbaxy, Dr Reddys and Teva are using lawyers to get around patent laws far earlier than was ever intended by the jurisdiction's original legislation.

As these pharmaceutical behemoths struggle ever more to find and defend NCE's through to profit so their desire to find them declines.
They are now virtually all diversifying away into the areas that Ranbaxy etc are in. ie selling existing drugs to new markets. This will undoubtedly lead to lower costs for these medicines but also fewer NCE's.
I can't think of a single large pharma company increasing spend (in real terms and possibly even nominally, other than through merger of course) on R&D.
Is this a good long term situation? Not IMO.

John_Pierpoint

This year, Pfizer have closed most of their Sandwich plant in Kent It is a scandal.

It was an icon, something that set us apart, a symbol of what put the Great into Britain.......

I never realised that breaking the patent protection on Viagra would mark the end of any chance for the UK economy.

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