| Hit by the tsunami of recessionary economy | | | | warned of harboring such an unrealistic |
| causing sales to dip and growth rates forecasted | | | | expectation that all biotech companies in distress |
| to fall below historic levels, pharma drug | | | | will be rescued. At present pharma firms have |
| companies have hit the panic button and are | | | | their eyes set on other pharma firms rather than |
| trying out different ways in their quest to survive. | | | | biotech product companies. |
| Mergers & Acquisitions | | | | Job Cuts |
| Pfizer's acquisition of Wyeth for US$68 Billion is a | | | | Pharma companies are fast reducing their |
| striking example. The company has acted to | | | | workforce. The Pfizer-Wyeth deal itself if |
| safeguard itself, owing to the plummeting | | | | expected lead to a 15 percent reduction of staff |
| revenues from it's popular drug "Lipitor" and | | | | for both the firms combined, which translates in |
| several other products, which would soon be | | | | to about 130,000 job cuts. |
| faced with expired patent protection. | | | | Other recent layoffs include King Pharmaceuticals |
| But this is being seen as just the beginning of a | | | | (KG), (22%, or 760 jobs), KV Pharmaceutical Co |
| whole wave of mergers to come by. Some other | | | | (700 job cuts expected), GlaxoSmithKline (10,000 |
| expected acquisitions are being speculated such as | | | | job cuts predicted), and more. |
| Roche buying out the remaining share of | | | | Skepticism |
| Genentech, Merck merging with Schering-Plough, a | | | | At the same time analysts are skeptical about |
| merger between Sanofi and Bristol-Myers Squibb, | | | | some aspects of these deals. For example there's |
| and more pharma industry mergers. | | | | apparently no solution to declining sales outlook, as |
| In fact the general expectation the big pharma | | | | projections about Pfizer-Wyeth will have a |
| companies are all set to taking over smaller player | | | | combined 2013 total company sales below the |
| raised the hopes among small biotechnology | | | | 2008 figure of $70 billion. Some suggest that while |
| companies worrying about their own survival soon | | | | large-scale mergers between will create cost |
| a bigger firm would approach them with a buy | | | | savings and give these companies time, that |
| out offer. However, recently panelists attending | | | | won't be sufficient to reinvent pharma. |
| the BioPartnering North America conference, | | | | |