Is drug lifecycle management the answer to the $100-billion question?

As competitive pressure from the post-patent-expiry entry of generics and new brands onto the market mounts, drug product lifecycles are becoming shorter and shorter, with lower peak sales a double edged-sword for pharmaceutical companies, notes a new report from market research firm Datamonitor.

In fact, products worth more than $100.0 billion in sales will be going off-patent and subject to generic incursion between 2008 and 2012. Thus, effective lifecycle management is becoming a must for pharmaceutical companies looking to maximize the return on their considerable investment. However, it is becoming increasingly difficult for drugmakers to do so with their current lifecycle management strategies.

According to Datamonitor's senior pharmaceutical analyst, Tijana Ignjatovic, "with the growing pressures of cost containment, only those strategies that satisfy payers, physicians and patients by meeting a true unmet therapeutic need will ultimately be successful in the future. Consequently, the development of reformulation and fixed-dose combination products will become less and less popular strategies as success becomes more difficult to achieve."