PwC sees golden era for pharmas that dump the junk, innovate

The future of pharma may look pretty bleak over the next few years. The patent cliff has laid to waste blockbusters while too many drugs that were to replace them have withered on the Phase III trial vine. Productivity is low and pipelines are full of high-risk molecules with small potential markets. Big Pharma is getting the screws put to it by payers and emerging markets may not be the panacea many predict, but things look great. PricewaterhouseCoopers acknowledges the pitfalls in its report, "From vision to decision: Pharma 2020." Still, with the drug market potentially growing to $1.6 trillion by 2020, it sees a "golden era of renewed productivity and prosperity" ahead. At least for the companies able to change their ways. Story