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Pharma 2020: The vision Which path will you take *connectedthinking - Pharmaceuticals - VPH Institute
Pharmaceuticals

Pharma 2020: The vision
Which path will you take?*

*connectedthinking        pwc
Pharma 2020: The vision      #
Table of contents

Introduction                           1
A growth market                        2
Emerging opportunities                 3
Compound crisis                        5
External barriers to innovation        8
Mixed signals                          9
The bill for every ill                10
Washington blues                      12
Blurring healthcare boundaries        14
Pay-for-performance                   16
Medicines for different markets       18
Healthy habits and fab jabs           19
Sticking to the rules                 21
What’s in a name?                     24

The need for a dynamic new approach   27
Access to basic research              28
Pharmaceutical research               29
Pharmaceutical development            31
Regulation                            33
The supply chain                      36
Sales and marketing                   38

Conclusion                            40

Acknowledgements                      42
References                            43

#                                          `PricewaterhouseCoopers
Introduction

                          Demand for effective medicines is          At the start of the decade, many
                          rising, as the population ages, new        people thought that science would
                          medical needs emerge and the               come to the industry’s rescue and
                          disease burden of the developing           that molecular genetics would reveal
                          world increasingly resembles that          numerous new biological targets,
                          of the developed world. The E7             but the human genome has proved
                          countries – Brazil, China, India,          even more complex than anyone
                          Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and              first envisaged. It is no longer the
                          Turkey – are also becoming much            speed at which scientific knowledge
                          more prosperous, with real gross           is advancing so much as it is the
                          domestic product (GDP) projected           healthcare agenda that is dictating
                          to triple over the next 13 years. By       how Pharma evolves.
                          2020, the E7 could account for as
                          much as one-fifth of global sales.         The first part of our report highlights
                                                                     a number of issues that will have a
                          Yet the biopharmaceutical sector           major bearing on the industry over
                          (Pharma) will find it hard to capitalise   the next 13 years. The second part
                          on these opportunities unless it           covers the changes we believe
                          can change the way in which it             will best help pharmaceutical
                          functions. Its core problem is lack        companies:
                          of productivity in the lab. Several
                                                                     • operate in this new milieu
                          external factors have arguably
                          exacerbated the industry’s                 • realise the potential the future
                          difficulties, but the inescapable            holds; and
                          truth is that it now spends far more
                                                                     • enhance the value they provide
                          on research and development
                                                                       shareholders and society alike.
                          (R&D) and produces far fewer new
                          molecules than it did 20 years ago.
                          The shortage of good medicines
                          in the pipeline underlies many
                          of the other challenges Pharma
                          faces, including its increasing
                          expenditure on sales and marketing,
                          deteriorating financial performance
                          and damaged reputation.

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                    1
A growth market                           strains of some existing illnesses.
                                                                The US Centers for Disease Control
                                                                and Prevention (CDC) estimates
The bottom line:      Demographic, epidemiological and
                      economic shifts are transforming          that more than 70% of US hospital
The global market     the pharmaceuticals market.               infections are resistant to at least one
                                                                of the antibiotics most commonly
                      The population is growing and
for medicines is      aging; new areas of medical need          used to treat them.5 And medical
                                                                research has exposed problems
growing, although     are emerging; and the diseases
                      from which people in developing           that were previously unidentified
demand is moving      countries suffer are increasingly         – including risk factors like metabolic
                      like those that trouble people living     syndrome and conditions like
to different          in the developed world. These             chronic fatigue syndrome, which
therapeutic areas,    changes will generate some huge
                      opportunities for Pharma.
                                                                recent evidence suggests is linked
                                                                to changes in gene expression in the
a shift that global   The global population is projected
                                                                white blood cells.6

warming could         to rise from 6.5 billion in 2005 to
                      7.6 billion in 2020. It is also aging
                                                                Meanwhile, new diseases, including
                                                                mutated forms of old diseases, are
accelerate            rapidly; by 2020, about 719.4m            surfacing. Urbanisation and greater
                      people – 9.4% of the world’s              mobility have contributed to the
                      inhabitants – will be 65 or more,         introduction of new pathogens,
                      compared with 477.4m (7.3%) two           some of which spread very fast
                      years ago.1 Older people typically        and are very difficult to treat. SARS
                      consume more medicines than               moved from Asia to North America
                      younger people; four in five of           and Europe in a matter of days.
                      those aged over 75 take at least          Similarly, the H5N1 avian flu virus
                      one prescription product, while           has spread from China and South
                      36% take four or more.2 So the            East Asia to the Middle East. The
                      grey factor will boost the need for       human cost has been tiny so far, but
                      medicines dramatically.                   the impact of an avian flu pandemic
                      Clinical advances will reinforce this     could be enormous.
                      trend. The improvements of the            Global warming could also have
                      past few decades have already             a major effect on the world’s
                      converted some previously terminal        health. In February 2007, the
                      illnesses into chronic conditions, thus   Intergovernmental Panel on Climate
                      increasing long-term demand for           Change (IPCC) reported that the
                      therapies to manage such diseases.        global average temperature had
                      The number of deaths from heart           increased by about 0.2°C per
                      attacks has declined by over 50% in       decade between 1990 and 2005.
                      most industrialised countries since       The IPCC projects that the average
                      the 1960s,3 for example, while five-      temperature will increase by another
                      year survival rates for US patients       0.2°C per decade for the next two
                      with cancer (expressed as an average      decades, even if the concentration
                      for all sites) have risen from 53% in
                                                                of all greenhouse gases remains
                      the mid-1980s to 66% today.4
                                                                constant at year 2000 levels, and
                      Demand for new anti-infectives            that it will “very likely” increase
                      is also mounting, with the                still more, if mankind’s output of
                      development of drug-resistant             greenhouse gases continues to rise.7

2                                                                                    PricewaterhouseCoopers
It is currently impossible to predict     Emerging opportunities
the full impact of a change in                                                         India’s insulin dependence
global weather patterns, or even          The markets of the developing world          The number of Indians with diabetes is
to be absolutely certain that man-        are altering even more radically than        projected to reach 73.5m in 2025. The
made pollutants are causing the           those of the developed world. At             direct and indirect costs of treating such
change. But many scientists believe       one time, infectious diseases were           patients are currently about $420 per
that global warming could bring           the biggest killers. This is still true of   person per year. If these costs remained
diseases such as malaria, cholera,                                                     the same as they are now, India’s total bill
                                          sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
diphtheria and dengue fever to                                                         for diabetes would be about $30 billion by
                                          But, elsewhere, chronic diseases are
                                                                                       2025. But as its economic wealth grows
more developed regions. Cases of          now the leading cause of death,11            and standards of care improve, treatment
malaria have now been reported in         a pattern that will become even              costs are likely to rise.
Azerbaijan, Corsica, Georgia and          stronger as the population of the
Turkey, where the disease was             developing world gets older, fatter          The US spends an average $10,844 per
eradicated after World War II.8                                                        year on each patient with diabetes. If
                                          and less physically active.
                                                                                       India’s per capita expenditure rose to just
Specialists argue that most vector-       Two specific instances illustrate just       one-tenth of this level, the total cost of
borne diseases are unlikely to            how much the epidemiological profile         treating all patients with diabetes would
become a major threat in North            is shifting. In 2004, an estimated           be $79.7 billion by 2025. The value of
America or Western Europe, where                                                       prophylaxis in India alone would thus
                                          639m people living in developing
the climate is cooler and better                                                       be substantial; preventing 10% of the
                                          countries suffered from hypertension.        population from developing diabetes
preventative measures are in place.       By 2025, the number is forecast to           would save nearly $8 billion a year.
The greater danger in such regions        reach at least one billion – more than
is an increase in respiratory illnesses   twice the projected rate of increase
like asthma and bronchitis, since         in that same population over the
higher levels of greenhouse gases         same timeframe.12 The picture is very
are expected to boost the pollen          similar when it comes to diabetes.
production of ragweed and other           The number of people with diabetes
common allergens.9                        in developing countries is expected
But numerous other medical                to rise from 84m in 1995 to 228m
problems could also emerge                in 2025, with India, the Middle East
everywhere, because even a small          and South East Asia bearing the
rise in temperature accelerates           worst of the burden (see sidebar,
the proliferation of many common          India’s insulin dependence).13
bacteria. The replication rate of         Demand for medicines that treat
Salmonella increases by 1.2%              illnesses formerly associated almost
per degree above minus 10°C, for          exclusively with the developed world
example, while the replication rates      is thus expanding in the developing
of Campylobacter (one of the most         world, at the same time that some
common causes of gastroenteritis)         countries are becoming increasingly
and E. coli increase by 2.2% and          affluent.
6%, respectively.10                       The E7 countries look especially
In short, all these changes are           attractive. Our economic modelling
creating new openings for Pharma.         suggests that the real GDP of the
Some of them may be in different          E7 countries will triple from US
therapeutic areas. But demand for         $5.1 trillion in 2004 to $15.7 trillion
innovative medicines for old and          in 2020, whereas that of the G7
new conditions alike is growing, not      countries will grow by just 40%, from
shrinking.

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                         3
Figure 1: The E7 economies will treble their real GDP by 2020

The bottom line:                             18,000                 G7 Countries                          E7 Countries
                        GDP (US$ Billions)

                                             16,000
The diseases of                              14,000

the developing                               12,000
                                             10,000
world increasingly                            8,000

resemble those                                6,000
                                              4,000
of the developed                              2,000
                                                 0
world, and greater
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                                                                             2004        2020 forecast
some countries        Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers Macro Economic Consulting Group

much more             Notes: 2004 estimates based on World Bank World Development Indicators database (except China,
                      which was adjusted for a later large data revision); 2020 projections based on our model

attractive markets
                      $25.8 trillion to $36.1 trillion.14 Their                             However, this is probably too
                      wealth relative to that of the G7 will                                conservative an estimate. The richer
                      rise from 19.7% to 43.4% over the                                     countries become, the more they
                      same period (see Figure 1).                                           tend to spend on healthcare. The
                                                                                            E7 populations are also aging faster
                      In 2004, the E7 countries spent                                       than those of the G7; by 2020,
                      0.94% of their GDP on prescription                                    338m of the people living in the E7
                      medicines (although the precise                                       countries will be at least 65 years of
                      percentage varied from one state                                      age, compared with 152.8m of the
                      to another). They collectively                                        people living in the G7 countries.16
                      accounted for 8% of the $518                                          But the G7 countries will still be
                      billion global market.15 The G7                                       more than twice as wealthy as the
                      countries, by contrast, spent 1.31%                                   E7 countries, and better able to
                      of their GDP on medicines and                                         afford the higher healthcare costs
                      accounted for 79% of all sales.                                       associated with an aging population.
                      So, if all 14 countries continue                                      So it is likely that both the G7
                      to spend the same proportion of                                       and the E7 countries will spend a
                      their GDP on medicines as they                                        larger proportion of their GDP on
                      do now (and if their GDP grows                                        medicines than they do now. But the
                      as we have projected), the global                                     rate of growth in the G7 economies
                      pharmaceuticals market will be                                        will almost certainly be much slower
                      worth about $800 billion in 2020,                                     than it is in the E7 economies – and
                      and the E7 countries will account                                     that disparity could eventually make
                      for about 14% of sales.                                               a significant difference.

4                                                                                                                    PricewaterhouseCoopers
Suppose, for instance, that the G7        industry’s total shareholder returns                                    is still struggling to apply the
pharmaceutical markets grew by            (TSRs) would plummet, unless it                                        insights it has gleaned from the
between 5% and 7% a year, while           could “industrialise” its R&D.17 Our                                   molecular sciences – genomics,
the E7 markets grew by between            forecasts were borne out by 2002,                                      proteomics, metabonomics and the
10% and 15% a year, for the next          with the publication of “Pharma                                        like – to improve its performance.
13 years. By 2020, the global             2010: The threshold of innovation”.
                                                                                                                 In 2006, North American spending
pharmaceuticals market would be           The Pharma 2010 report contended
                                                                                                                 on biopharmaceutical R&D reached
worth about $1.3 trillion, with the E7    that the industry’s best hope of
                                                                                                                 a record $55.2 billion (and the US
countries accounting for about 19%        earning higher returns lay in the
                                                                                                                 accounts for about three-quarters
of sales. China would be the second       development of packages of
                                                                                                                 of global expenditure in this area).
or third biggest market in the world,     products and services targeted
                                                                                                                 The member companies of the
and Turkey and India might well be        at patients with specific disease
                                                                                                                 Pharmaceutical Research and
in the top 10.                            subtypes and that, if it was to make
                                                                                                                 Manufacturers of America (PhRMA)
                                          such “targeted treatments”, it
One thing is clear from these                                                                                    spent an estimated $43 billion, while
                                          would have to start by focusing on
broad-brush calculations; the                                                                                    non-member companies spent
                                          diseases rather than compounds.18
financial clout of the E7 countries                                                                              another $12.2 billion.19 But the US
is improving significantly. The           However, the human genome has                                          Food and Drug Administration (FDA)
economic, demographic and                 proved more complex and less                                           approved only 22 new molecular
social changes of the next decade         amenable to mechanistic analysis                                       entities (NMEs) and biologics, a far
will make them very much more             than many scientists anticipated,                                      cry from the 53 it approved in 1996
appealing places in which to make         when the draft map was completed                                       when R&D expenditure was less than
and market pharmaceuticals.               in 2001. Hence the fact that Pharma                                    half the sum it is now (see Figure 2).20

Compound crisis
Yet Pharma will not be in a strong        Figure 2: R&D spending has soared but the number of NMEs and biologics
position to capitalise on these           approved by the FDA is down
opportunities, unless it can change
                                                                        50,000                                                                        60   No. of NMEs and Biologics Approved
the way in which it operates. Its
                                          R&D Spending (US$ Millions)

core problem is lack of innovation                                      45,000
                                                                                                                                                      50
in making effective new therapies                                       40,000
for the world’s unmet medical                                           35,000
                                                                                                                                                      40
needs. Medicines have helped many                                       30,000
individuals enjoy longer, healthier                                     25,000                                                                        30
lives. But, as the global population                                    20,000
becomes older and more prosperous,                                      15,000
                                                                                                                                                      20
people’s expectations are rising – and
                                                                        10,000
the industry is finding it increasingly                                                                                                               10
difficult to fulfil their hopes.                                         5,000
                                                                            0                                                                         0
We predicted that this would                                                     1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004* 2005* 2006*
happen when we published “Pharma                                                                                               * includes Biologics
2005: An Industrial Revolution” in                                                         R&D Spending      NMEs and New Biologics Approved
1998. We argued that the safety,
efficacy and cost-effectiveness
                                          Sources: FDA/CDER Data, PhRMA data, PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis
of new medicines would attract            Note: Data on R&D spending for non-PhRMA companies are not included here, because they are not
growing scrutiny, and that the            available for all 11 years

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                                                             5
Figure 3: Only five of the top Pharma companies generate more than 10% of                                    Even allowing for inflation, the
their revenues from products that were launched in the last five years                                       industry is investing twice as much
                                                                                                             in R&D as it was a decade ago
                                      35                                                                     to produce two-fifths of the new
                                      30
                                                                                                             medicines it then produced.21

                                      25
                                                                                                             Moreover, only nine of the new
                                                                                                             treatments launched in the US in
        % Sales

                                      20                                                                     2006 came from the labs of the
                                                                                                             13 companies that comprise the
                                      15
                                                                                                             Big Pharma universe,22 a pattern
                                      10                                                                     that has changed very little over
                                                                                                             the past few years. Our analysis
                                       5
                                                                                                             shows that, in 2006, only two Big
                                       0                                                                     Pharma companies earned more
                                            ABT AZN BMY GSK JNJ LLY MRK NVS PFE ROG SGP SNY WYE              than 10% of their revenues from
                                                  % Sales in last 3 Years % Sales in last 5 Years            “major”products that are less than
                                                                                                             three years old.23 Worse still, those
Sources: IMS Health and PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis                                                      38 products generated only $10
                                                                                                             billion of the $316 billion Big Pharma
                                                                                                             earned from its entire medicines
                                                                                                             portfolio.
Figure 4: Big Pharma delivered weighted average total shareholder returns of                                 The situation is little better over a
-2.4% per annum between January 2001 and March 2007                                                          five-year timeframe. In 2006, only
                                                                                                             five Big Pharma companies earned
                                                                                                             more than 10% of their revenues
                                      80                                                                     from major products launched
Total Return (%) Jan 2001- Mar 2007

                                                                                                             after 2001, and those 65 products
                                      60
                                                                                                             generated sales of only $30.4
                                      40                                                                     billion (see Figure 3). Thus more
                                                                                                             than 90% of Big Pharma’s total
                                      20                                               Avg. Weighted         pharmaceutical revenues came
                                                                                       Return
                                       0                                                                     from medicines that have been on
                                                                                                             the market for more than five years.
                                      -20                                                                    Yet the patents on many of these
                                      -40                                                                    products are due to expire quite
                                                                                                             shortly, exposing an estimated $157
                                      -60 PFE GSK SNY NVS AZN JNJ ROG MRK WYE BMY ABT LLY SGP                billion worth of sales (measured in
                                                                                                             2005 terms) to generic erosion.24

Sources: Yahoo!Finance, PricewaterhouseCoopers analysis
Note: Total returns have been calculated for the period January 2, 2001- March 30, 2007, with the
exception of Sanofi (now sanofi-aventis) where the total return has been calculated from February 7, 2002.
The weighted average return is based on the market capitalisation in 2001

6                                                                                                                                PricewaterhouseCoopers
The revenues the industry leaders       Industry (ABPI), have also launched
generate have also come at a very       new codes of practice imposing
high price. Between 1995 and 2005,      much tighter rules on the promotion
the percentage of total corporate       of medicines.28 And, in late 2003,       The bottom line:
spending accounted for by R&D
rose from 15% to 17.1%, while
                                        Spain’s Autonomous Regions
                                        introduced restrictions on the           Pharma must
the percentage accounted for by
sales and general administration
                                        number of promotional visits sales
                                        representatives can make.29
                                                                                 improve its R&D
rose from 28.7% to 33.1%. Sales
                                        In short, Pharma’s lack of R&D           productivity, if it is
and marketing is by far the biggest
corporate expense.25
                                        productivity lies at the root of many
                                        of the other difficulties it is now      to meet the world’s
This increasing expenditure on
sales and marketing could be
                                        experiencing – difficulties that are
                                        reflected in its poor financial record
                                                                                 unmet medical
seen as yet another sign of the         over the past few years. Between         needs and capitalise
paucity of innovative medicines         1985 and 2000, the industry’s
reaching the market, since it is        market value increased 85-fold,          on the market
arguable that products for which        far outpacing the stock market as
there is real demand do not need        a whole.30 But in the six years to       opportunities now
to be heavily promoted. However,        March 30, 2007, the FTSE Global
it has generated considerable           Pharmaceuticals Index rose just          emerging
criticism, too. In a survey of          1.3%, while the Dow Jones World
industry stakeholders conducted         Index rose by 34.9%. Big Pharma’s
by the PricewaterhouseCoopers           TSRs followed the same downward
Health Research Institute, 94%          path; between January 2001 and
of the respondents said that            March 2007, it delivered weighted
pharmaceutical companies spent          average TSRs of -2.4% a year (see
too much money on advertising.26        Figure 4).
Six US states have now passed “gift
laws” requiring all pharmaceutical
companies to disclose how much
they give doctors, hospitals and
pharmacists each year, while
another 15 states have similar bills
in the offing.27 Several European
trade bodies, including the
Prescription Medicines Code of
Practice Authority of the Association
of the British Pharmaceutical

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                              7
External barriers to                     The international laws governing
                       innovation                               intellectual property rights have
                                                                compounded this conservatism. At
The bottom line:       Pharma’s R&D processes have              present, all patents last 20 years,
The legal framework    become so complex – even                 regardless of the quality of the
                                                                intellectual property they protect.
                       cumbersome, indeed – that it is
in which Pharma        hardly surprising its productivity has   But if prophylactics and novel
                                                                products serving an unmet medical
                       tumbled. Nevertheless, several
operates must be       political, legal and financial factors   need were granted longer patent
                       have arguably contributed to the         lives, while me-too medicines and
altered to promote     problem. Most pharmaceutical             new formulations were granted
                                                                shorter patent lives, pharmaceutical
innovation and         companies use internal valuation
                       mechanisms to assess the clinical        companies would have a direct
                                                                incentive to become more
discourage imitation   and commercial potential of the
                       compounds in their pipelines,            innovative.32
                       and select the ones they want to         Determining which therapies were
                       pursue. In other words, like other       worthy of longer patent lives might
                       organisations that are answerable        sometimes be difficult. If, say, 20
                       to shareholders, they “follow the        new cancer treatments reached the
                       money”.                                  market within a few months of each
                       But when they start developing           other, it might be hard to decide
                       a new medicine, they do not              which were the most deserving
                       know whether it will be eligible         – let alone who should make that
                       for reimbursement if it reaches          judgement. But, given the typical
                       the market, unless it addresses          product lifecycle, we estimate
                       a disease for which there is no          that an extra five years of patent
                       existing treatment or looks likely       life would increase the cash flows
                       to prove much better than any            from a truly innovative medicine by
                       comparable therapies. And, in most       between 50% and 100%, depending
                       countries, they are not allowed to       on how vulnerable it is to generic
                       seek guidance from the relevant          erosion.33
                       government agencies.                     That, in turn, would furnish
                       Many firms therefore try to minimise     governments with much stronger
                       their risks by “playing it safe”. The    grounds for arguing that the prices
                       Centre for Medicines Research            of such products should be reduced
                       International reports that, in 2004,     and thus brought within reach of
                       more than 20% of the money               many more patients, since the
                       10 of the largest pharmaceutical         industry would have a longer period
                       companies invested in R&D went           in which to recover its investment.
                       on line extensions and other work,       Indeed, there may even be a case
                       as distinct from new development         for extending the patent lives of
                       projects. In smaller companies, the      groundbreaking vaccines like
                       percentage was over 40%.31               Gardasil to 50 years or more, on the
                                                                understanding that they are priced at
                                                                levels which are universally affordable.

8                                                                                    PricewaterhouseCoopers
Mixed signals                                           three NMEs a year. Most companies                       value when its pipeline is valued
                                                        subsequently acknowledged that                          differently by different analysts. And
The political and legal framework                       these aspirations were completely                       it is more tempting to maximise the
in which Pharma operates has thus                       unattainable. But, in repeatedly                        number of candidate molecules in
deterred it from taking some of the                     altering the targets they then set                      Phase III, even though it would be
risks that are required to produce                      themselves, they have failed to                         better to weed some of them out
genuinely innovative new therapies.                     give the investment community                           at an earlier and cheaper stage of
Its communications with the capital                     a clear idea of what to expect.                         development.
markets may have muddied the                            Attrition rates in Phase II have also
                                                                                                                These are by no means the only
waters still further. The preliminary                   deteriorated significantly over the
                                                                                                                problems. Analysts also look for
results of some research we recently                    same period.34 The variations in the
                                                                                                                evidence of sustainable returns. But
conducted show that there are                           value different analysts place on
                                                                                                                most pharmaceutical companies’
significant variations in the value                     pipelines are entirely understandable
                                                                                                                revenues are becoming much
the top city analysts accord R&D                        in light of these conflicting signals,
                                                                                                                more cyclical, as the billion-dollar
pipelines, and that most analysts                       as is their reluctance to attribute any
                                                                                                                blockbusters in their portfolios
focus mainly on the quality of the                      value to molecules whose fate still
                                                                                                                come off patent and they struggle
molecules in Phase III. Two major                       remains extremely doubtful.
                                                                                                                to develop new medicines that can
changes during the past decade
                                                        However, in sending the capital                         replace this income. Research by
help to explain why.
                                                        markets such mixed messages,                            investment management firm AXA
In the mid-1990s, the leading                           Pharma has also made life harder for                    Framlington shows the scale of the
pharmaceutical companies                                itself. It is more difficult to determine               challenge (see Table 1).
announced plans to launch two or                        how best to increase a company’s

Table 1: The leading pharmaceutical companies will lose between 14% and 41% of their existing revenues as a result
of patent expiries
                                                                                                               Share of
 Company                    2010                           2011                          2012                Revenues (%)

 AstraZeneca         Arimidex                ($2.2bn)*       Seroquel                 ($4.7bn)        Symbicort             ($3.7bn)           38**

 BMS                                                         US Plavix                ($4.8bn)        Abilify               ($2.1bn)           30
                                                             Avapro                   ($1.3bn)

 GSK                 Advair                   ($3.8bn)                                                Avandia               ($2.5bn)           23

 Eli Lilly                                                   Zyprexa                  ($4.8bn)                                                 22

 Merck               Cozaar/                  ($3.2bn)                                                Singulair             ($4.5bn)           22
                     Hyzaar

 Novartis            Femara                   ($1.1bn)                                                Diovan                ($6.0bn)           14

 Pfizer              Aricept                  ($800m)        Lipitor                 ($12.1bn)        Viagra                ($1.7bn)           41
                                                             Xalatan                  ($1.6bn)        Detrol                ($860m)
                                                                                                      Geodon                ($1.1bn)

 sanofi-aventis      Taxotere                  ($2bn)        US Plavix                ($3.8bn)        Lovenox               ($3.1bn)           34
                                                             Avapro                   ($2.1bn)
Source: AXA Framlington
Notes: * Estimate of global sales in 12 months prior to patent signing
        ** Value of products losing patent protection as a percentage of total company sales over next five years

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                                               9
Many pharmaceutical companies              The bill for every ill
                        face a serious dilemma, then. For
                        the past 20 years, they have “sold”
The bottom line: The    themselves on their ability to develop
                                                                   The same features that will ensure
                                                                   Pharma’s market continues to
investment model        blockbusters, but they now have to
                        alter their story without forfeiting the
                                                                   expand have also exposed the
                                                                   limitations of the current approach
used by the capital     confidence of the capital markets.
                        They also have to meet short-term
                                                                   to healthcare funding: namely, that
                                                                   most of the world’s pharmaceutical
markets does not        earnings targets (from quarterly           spending goes on the treatment of
                        reporting or other, more subtle            disease rather than its prevention.
work very well for      pressures) that may be at odds with        This is partly because some
                        their long-term aspirations – and they     diseases are so complex that
an industry that        have to do these things at a time when     scientific understanding of their
                        competition for funding is getting
works to timelines      more intense, thanks to the revival of
                                                                   pathology is still very limited, and
                                                                   developing cures or prophylactics
of 10 years or more,    interest in the biotech sector.            for such illnesses is therefore
                        In the US, where the sector is             extremely difficult. In addition, the
and is unlikely to do   relatively mature, the cycles of           risks associated with preventing
                        investment in Pharma and biotech           disease in healthy people are quite
so unless Pharma        have converged. But, elsewhere,            different from those associated with
                                                                   treating people who are already sick.
“re-sets” market        there is still a major disjunction
                        between the two. So, if the biotech        However, most countries invest
expectations            sector’s charms grow over the next
                        couple of years, as some investors
                                                                   much less in public health than they
                                                                   do in other forms of healthcare;
                        predict, Pharma could find itself out      the OECD average is just 2.9% of
                        in the cold.                               total health expenditure.35 In effect,
                                                                   society’s spending priorities are
                                                                   back-to-front. A specific example
                                                                   shows the full extent of the bias.
                                                                   Gardasil, Merck’s breakthrough
                                                                   vaccine for cervical cancer, sells for
                                                                   just $360 in the US, compared with
                                                                   an average annual wholesale price
                                                                   of $19,289 for Betaseron, $22,875
                                                                   for Rebif and $28,400 for Tysabri, all
                                                                   products that modify the symptoms
                                                                   of multiple sclerosis but cannot cure
                                                                   or prevent it.36
                                                                   As the global population grows
                                                                   and ages, and demand for better
                                                                   healthcare management increases,
                                                                   this emphasis on treatment rather
                                                                   than prevention will become
                                                                   increasingly unsustainable. Older

10                                                                                     PricewaterhouseCoopers
people consume more healthcare             Figure 5: Older people consume more healthcare than younger people do
than young people everywhere,
although there are some huge
national discrepancies. In Spain and
                                             Patients Relative to Those in 50-64 Age Group

Sweden, for example, the average
                                                  Increase in Healthcare Costs of Older

level of healthcare spending on                                                              35
patients aged 80 or older is twice                                                           30
as much as it is on patients aged
50-64; in the US, by contrast, it is                                                         25
11.5 times more (see Figure 5).                                                              20
We estimate that, by 2020, the
OECD countries, excluding the US,                                                            15
will spend 16% of their GDP on                                                               10
healthcare, while the US will spend a
                                                                                                 5
huge 21%. In all, they will spend $10
trillion on healthcare (see Figure 6).37                                                         0

So, governments everywhere will                                                                        US        Canada        UK      Australia    Japan      Germany      Spain      Sweden
have to reverse their approach.                                                                                  Age Group          50-64   65-69        70-74      75-79    80+
They will have to devote a much            Source: Laurence Kotlikoff & Christian Hagist, “Who’s Going Broke?” National Bureau of Economic
larger proportion of their healthcare      Research, Working Paper No. 11833, December 2005
expenditure to preventative                Note: Ratio of average spending on individuals in each age group in each country relative to an individual
                                           aged 50-64 in the same country. Numbers rounded
measures, and reward the
development of vaccines and cures
more highly than they do palliative
medicines. Without such a change
of strategy, no country will be able
                                           Figure 6: Health expenditure as a percentage of GDP is increasing rapidly in the
to fund the healthcare needs of its        OECD countries
inhabitants by 2020.
                                                                                             21
The aging of the population,
together with dietary changes                                                                19
and more sedentary lifestyles,
will also increase the burden of                                                             17
chronic disease. The World Health
                                           % GDP

Organisation (WHO) estimates that                                                            15
60% of all the deaths that took
                                                                                             13
place in 2005 could be attributed
to chronic conditions, and predicts                                                          11
that the number of deaths from
chronic diseases will increase by                                                            9
17% over the next 10 years.38
                                                                                                 06

                                                                                                       07

                                                                                                             08

                                                                                                                   09

                                                                                                                          10

                                                                                                                                11

                                                                                                                                       12

                                                                                                                                             13

                                                                                                                                                    14

                                                                                                                                                          15

                                                                                                                                                                 16

                                                                                                                                                                       17

                                                                                                                                                                             18

                                                                                                                                                                                    19

                                                                                                                                                                                          20

The toll is highest in developing
                                                                                             20

                                                                                                      20

                                                                                                            20

                                                                                                                  20

                                                                                                                        20

                                                                                                                               20

                                                                                                                                     20

                                                                                                                                            20

                                                                                                                                                   20

                                                                                                                                                         20

                                                                                                                                                               20

                                                                                                                                                                      20

                                                                                                                                                                            20

                                                                                                                                                                                  20

                                                                                                                                                                                         20

countries, which account for 80% of
all mortalities from chronic diseases                                                                                                  US          OECD ex-US
and where the onset of disease is          Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers Health Research Institute

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                                                                                         11
often much earlier than it is in the      Washington blues
                     developed world. In the US, for
                     example, only 12% of deaths from
The bottom line:     cardiovascular disease (CVD) occur
                                                               The extent of the problem with
                                                               healthcare funding is particularly
Pharma will have     in working-age people, compared
                     with 28% in Brazil, 35% in India and
                                                               apparent in the US, Pharma’s
                                                               biggest and most profitable market.
to participate in    41% in South Africa.39                    As an article recently published in
                     But the developed world is also           The New York Times put it: “What is
the debate on        paying dearly. One recent study           the most pressing problem facing the
                                                               [US] economy? A good case can be
healthcare funding   puts the cost of CVD in the
                     European Union (EU) alone at              made for the developing healthcare
                                                               crisis.”41 The impact on the
and demonstrate      about €169 billion ($226.1 billion) a
                     year.40 And though the developed          automotive manufacturing industry
the value of its     countries have been very successful       has already been well documented.
                                                               In 2006, General Motors and Ford
                     in pushing some chronic diseases
products or risk     up the age ladder, increasing             spent about $5.9 billion and $2.9
                                                               billion, respectively, on healthcare
                     longevity will force more people to
coming under         work longer. Most of these changes        – a bill that adds more than $1,380 to
                     – like the raising of the retirement      the cost of producing each car.42
huge pressure to     age in Belgium and the UK – will          In fact, administrative costs are
cut the prices of    take place after 2020. However, the
                     overall direction is clear; a bigger
                                                               responsible for between 20% and
                                                               31% of US healthcare spending.43
many mass-market     percentage of the population of the
                     developed world will still be working
                                                               Hospital spending accounts for
                                                               nearly 33% of all expenditure,
medicines            at the point at which chronic             and prescription products for just
                     diseases kick in.                         10.1%.44 But governments often
                     These trends have several                 focus on the prices of medicines
                     implications for Pharma. As               because they are a relatively easy
                     healthcare rises up the political         target, and many people believe the
                     agenda, the industry will have to         medicines bill is much higher than
                     engage in the debate on how it is         it really is. In a survey conducted
                     funded and play its part in helping       by the PricewaterhouseCoopers
                     to control costs. The social and          Health Research Institute, 97%
                     economic value of good medicines          of consumers estimated that
                     for chronic diseases will rise with the   prescription medicines accounted
                     extension of working life around the      for at least 15% of overall US
                     globe – and many such medicines           healthcare costs, while 63% put the
                     already exist, as falling mortality and   figure between 40% and 79%.45
                     morbidity rates in the developed          Moreover, with the Democrats
                     world demonstrate. But there will         now in the ascendant on Capitol
                     simply not be enough money in             Hill, Pharma could find itself much
                     the pot to cover the world’s future       more exposed. Two measures, in
                     healthcare needs, unless Pharma           particular, are worth discussing
                     can cut its operating costs and           in further detail: the proposal
                     margins on these products.                to introduce a national health
                                                               insurance scheme; and the bill to
                                                               give the federal government the

12                                                                                 PricewaterhouseCoopers
power to negotiate medicine prices       even bigger financial impact on the                      Human Services estimates that
for Medicare Part D, the medicine        industry, if they are ever translated                    the average level of discounts and
benefit programme for the elderly.       into practice. In January 2007, the                      rebates in 2006 was about 27%.51
                                         House of Representatives approved                        But research by the Congressional
Some 16% of the 300m people
                                         a bill requiring the government to                       Budget Office shows that average
living in the US currently have no
                                         negotiate Medicare prescription                          discounts for the six federal
medical cover, and the Democrats
                                         drug prices, rather than having each                     programmes which negotiate prices
are keen to redress the situation
                                         plan provider deal directly with                         directly with manufacturers range
by introducing a universal health
                                         manufacturers, as is now the case.48                     from 51% to 59%.52 If the government
system. However, such a move
                                         President Bush has said that he will                     were to secure similar discounts for
would be very expensive. In 2005,
                                         veto the Medicare Prescription Drug                      Medicare Part D, its net expenditure
the US spent almost $2 trillion on
                                         Price Negotiation Act if it passes the                   on medicines under the programme
healthcare, about $50-60 billion of
which went on providing medical          Senate.49 And, even if the Act does                      would therefore fall from $794 billion
treatment for the indigent. It is        become law, it makes no provision                        to $532.9 billion – a total saving of
extremely difficult to calculate the     for altering a government programme                      $261.1 billion – by 2017 (see Figure 7).
additional cost of covering the          that is administered by third parties.
                                         But the Democrats argue that                             In practice, it is doubtful that the
uninsured population as a whole,                                                                  US government would introduce
but one study suggests that it could     negotiating medicine prices centrally
                                         could produce substantial savings. So                    quite such draconian price controls.
be between $125 billion and $150                                                                  Critics claim that the programme
billion a year, depending on the         what sort of sums might be involved?
                                                                                                  administered by the Department
particular model that is used.46         The net federal cost of Medicare                         of Veteran Affairs offers a relatively
Some public-policy researchers           part D is currently projected at $794                    narrow range of treatment options in
argue that the cost of restricting       billion for the period 2007-2017.50                      many classes of therapies, and that
access to healthcare for the             The US Department of Health and                          patients and physicians accustomed
uninsured, measured in terms of
shorter lives and poorer productivity,
could be as much as $130 billion a       Figure 7: If the US government negotiated drug prices for Medicare
                                         Part D directly, Pharma’s revenues could drop
year, and that the introduction of a
federal healthcare programme for
the uninsured would ultimately be                       140
revenue-neutral.47 But even if this                     120
proved true, the initial investment
would be many billions of dollars,                      100
                                         US$ Billions

and the government would find it
                                                        80
difficult to raise such a sum. The
introduction of a national health                       60
system in the US would thus
                                                        40
increase the number of people who
had access to modern medicines,                         20
but it might also result in more
widespread use of treatment                              0
protocols, generics and over-the-
                                                                                                                                    17
                                                               07

                                                                     08

                                                                            09

                                                                                   10

                                                                                         11

                                                                                                12

                                                                                                       13

                                                                                                              14

                                                                                                                     15

                                                                                                                           16

counter (OTC) medications, making
                                                                                                                                20
                                                              20

                                                                    20

                                                                          20

                                                                                 20

                                                                                        20

                                                                                               20

                                                                                                     20

                                                                                                            20

                                                                                                                   20

                                                                                                                          20

life more difficult for research-based
                                                                          Projected Net Federal Cost of Medicare Part D
pharmaceutical companies.
                                                                          Projected Net Federal Cost With Average Discount of 51%
The Democrats’ proposed changes
to Medicare Part D could have an
                                         Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                                  13
to a much wider range of choices          to electronic pedigrees, DNA
                         under private health plans would be       labelling and the like. A growing
                         unlikely to accept such restrictions.53   number of governments are also
The bottom line:         Nevertheless, it is clear which way       using prices in other countries to
Pharma cannot rely       the wind is blowing – and, if the
                         Democrats have their way, Pharma
                                                                   benchmark the prices they pay.
                                                                   There may thus come a time when
on the US market to      will come under huge pressure to
                         cut its prices.
                                                                   many medicines command a
                                                                   regional or even global price.
bail it out. Nor can     Moreover, if price controls are
it assume that it will   introduced, their impact will not be
                         confined to Medicare Part D. By
                                                                   Blurring healthcare
                                                                   boundaries
always be able to        January 2010, the US government
                         will pay for 37% of all prescription
charge a lot more        drug expenditure under Medicare           Changes in the way healthcare is
                                                                   delivered will arguably play an even
                         and Medicaid. Employers will pay
for its products in      for another 39% under private             bigger role in shaping the industry’s
                                                                   future. The primary-care sector is
                         insurance programmes.54 Given the
some markets than        extent to which rising healthcare         expanding and becoming more
                         costs have already impaired the           regimented, as general practitioners
in others                competitiveness of US industry, it        perform more minor surgical
                         seems reasonable to assume that           procedures and healthcare payers
                         any price controls the government         increasingly mandate the treatment
                         adopted would soon spill over into        protocols they must follow, including
                         the private sector.                       the drugs they can prescribe.
                                                                   Conversely, the secondary-care
                         So Pharma cannot continue to              sector is contracting, as clinical
                         rely on the US to bail it out of its      advances render previously terminal
                         current difficulties. Indeed, it may      diseases chronic; healthcare
                         ultimately be unable to count on          providers like Clinovia in the UK, and
                         differential pricing in any market        Gentiva in the US, deliver secondary
                         whatever. The Internet has already        care at home; and hospitals focus
                         eroded geographical variations in         on the specialist care that cannot be
                         the prices of consumer electronics,       supplied anywhere else.
                         for example, and the European             The self-medication sector is
                         Commission recently threatened            also growing, as more and more
                         to fine Apple for charging higher         products that would once have
                         prices to download music in some          been available only on prescription
                         European countries than in others.55      are sold in OTC formats. Most
                         Buying medicines on the Internet          medicines that acquire OTC status
                         is currently much more dangerous,         are used for non-chronic conditions
                         of course, unless the supplier            which are relatively easy to self-
                         is a reputable company with an            diagnose and have little potential
                         established track record. But, by         to cause harm, if abused. But, in
                         2020, the problem of counterfeiting       May 2004, the UK Medicines and
                         should be largely resolved, thanks        Healthcare products Regulatory

14                                                                                     PricewaterhouseCoopers
Agency (MHRA) broke with this                               set up retail medicine outlets staffed           conceivable that patients will be
convention by reclassifying                                 by nurse practitioners who provide               able to use web-based receiving
simvastatin 10mg as an OTC                                  basic medical care, including writing            algorithms to establish whether they
medicine.56                                                 prescriptions.60 An increasing                   have a condition that will sort itself
                                                            number of surgical procedures are                out without recourse to prescription
Meanwhile, Australia’s Therapeutic
                                                            performed in ambulatory surgery                  drugs. This would eliminate a
Goods Administration approved the
                                                            centres rather than hospitals. And               substantial number of consultations,
weight-management therapy Orlistat
                                                            the FDA has said that it hopes to                since self-limiting diseases are
for OTC use in October 2003.57 The
                                                            boost the number of medicines it                 thought to account for about 85% of
FDA followed suit in February 2007,58
                                                            switches to OTC status by 50% a                  all visits to primary-care physicians.63
and Boots, the British pharmacy chain,
                                                            year.61 The American Pharmacists                 Any patient who needed additional
introduced a trial scheme to sell Viagra
                                                            Association is also advocating                   diagnostic tests or treatments would
over the counter only a few days
                                                            the introduction of a “behind-the-               then see a nurse practitioner, and
afterwards.59 The definitions of primary
                                                            counter” option such as already                  would only be referred to a doctor if
and secondary care are thus blurring,
                                                            exists in some European countries                his or her case were more complex
as some forms of care that were
                                                            and the FDA has endorsed the idea,               or required surgical intervention.
traditionally delivered by secondary-
care providers are transferred to a                         although any such move would                     These changes in the healthcare
primary-care setting, and some forms                        require congressional approval.62                system have obvious benefits for
of primary care are transferred to the                      A better understanding of the                    healthcare payers; healthcare is
patient (see Figure 8).                                                                                      cheaper, the more it is planned
                                                            taxonomy of disease, together
                                                                                                             and the closer it is delivered to the
This trend is particularly pronounced                       with better diagnostic tools and
                                                                                                             patient’s home. But they have huge
in the UK, but it is taking place in                        monitoring devices, will provide
                                                                                                             ramifications for Pharma as well.
other countries, too. In the US,                            the means with which to bring
for example, some large discount                            healthcare delivery even closer                  First, as treatment protocols replace
stores and pharmacy chains have                             to the patient. By 2020, it is quite             individual prescribing decisions and

Figure 8: The provision of healthcare is moving closer to the patient

Healthcare Delivery in 2007                                                      Healthcare Delivery in 2020

Secondary Care
                                                                                  Secondary Care
 Emergency room, Diagnostics
 Intensive care, Minor surgery,                                                   Emergency room
 Major surgery, Other out-patient services                                        Intensive care
                                                                                  Major surgery
                        Primary Care
                        Initial
                        Complex diagnosis
                                  diagnostics
                        Prescriptions                    Patient
                         & treatments                                                 Primary Care
                        Routine    checks
                        Minor surgical procedures
                                                                                      Complex diagnostics & treatments
                                                                                      Minor surgical procedures                         Patient
                                                                                      Basic diagnostics & prescribing by nurse
                                                                                      practitioners
                                                    Self-Care                         “Life checks”
                                                    OTC drugs
                                                           -
                                                    Basic medical advice                                                 Self-Care
                                                                                                                         Web based self-diagnostics
                                                                                                                         OTC   drugs self
                                                                                                                          Web-based  for chronic   & non-chronic
                                                                                                                                          diagnostics
                                                                                                                         conditions
                                                                                                                          OTC drugs for chronic & non--
                                                                                                                         ““Wellness”
                                                                                                                          Wellness”services
                                                                                                                                     services

Source: PricewaterhouseCoopers

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                                                                            15
technology improves the ability to        Pay-for-performance
                       diagnose conditions, the decision-
                       making authority is gradually moving
The bottom line:       from doctors to healthcare policy-
                                                                 The provision of healthcare is not
                                                                 all that is changing; so is the way
Pharma’s target        makers and payers. However, the
                       criteria policy-makers and payers
                                                                 in which it is measured. Several
                                                                 countries have set up agencies
audience is            use for adopting new medicines
                       are different from those physicians
                                                                 specifically to compare the safety
                                                                 and efficacy of different forms of
changing, as           use; payers typically focus on risk       intervention and promote the use of
                       and cost-effectiveness,64 whereas         evidence-based medicine. The US
healthcare policy-     doctors put safety and efficacy           Agency for Healthcare Research and
                       before cost.65                            Quality is one such body, as is the
makers and payers      Second, the sales and marketing           UK Centre for Health Technology
increasingly control   model on which the industry has           Evaluation – a division of the
                                                                 National Institute for Clinical Health
                       historically relied is becoming
the prescribing        increasingly obsolete.There is little     and Effectiveness (NICE) – although
                                                                 the latter also considers economic
                       point in sending out a large sales
decision               force to influence primary-care           performance.
                       practitioners who do not choose           The Australian Pharmaceutical
                       which medicines they prescribe.           Benefits Advisory Committee,
                       Lastly, with the erosion of               New Zealand Pharmaceutical
                       the conventional boundaries               Management Agency and Finnish
                       between self-care, primary care           Office for Health Care Technology
                       and secondary care, the needs             Assessment (to name just a few)
                       of patients are shifting. Where           also conduct pharmacoeconomic
                       treatment is migrating from the           evaluations of new medicines,
                       doctor to ancillary staff or self-care,   devices and procedures. But there
                       for example, patients will require        is as yet no systematic process
                       more comprehensive information            for measuring cost-benefit ratios,
                       about the medicines they take, more       and the volume of outcomes data
                       advice and more surveillance. Where       these agencies can analyse is still
                       treatment is migrating from the           relatively small – a restriction that
                       hospital to the primary-care sector,      will end during the next decade
                       they will require new services such       with the widespread adoption of
                       as home delivery.                         electronic medical records (EMRs).
                       Thus Pharma should be focusing            The US aims to develop a national
                       on the provision of a full range of       health information network by
                       products and services spanning            2014.66 The EU has also called for
                       the healthcare spectrum, and using        every member state to create an
                       different channels to distribute          EMR,67 and several countries have
                       different kinds of products and           already made considerable headway.
                       services. In fact, some companies         Denmark now has a comprehensive
                       are already beginning to use              health data network,68 while the
                       different distribution channels in        British system is expected to be
                       the US – a trend we shall discuss in      operational by 2012, despite the
                       more detail further on.                   many problems that have dogged

16                                                                                   PricewaterhouseCoopers
it.69 Thus, by 2020, some countries        data would expose those instances
will have between six and eight            in which a medicine works well for
years’ worth of longitudinal data.         one patient population and not for
This may not be enough to assess           others. And if the industry succeeds      The bottom line:
the impact of treatments for
diseases that progress quite slowly,
                                           in changing its approach to R&D,
                                           and launching many more drugs             Pharma will have to
but it will certainly be sufficient to
evaluate the clinical and economic
                                           with individually smaller revenues, it
                                           would also be spreading its risk to a
                                                                                     prove to healthcare
performance of many therapies.             much greater extent.                      payers increasingly
The effect on Pharma is likely
to be two-fold. First, healthcare
                                           Second, the price any therapy
                                           can command will be based on              interested in
policy-makers and payers will use
outcomes data to determine best
                                           its performance, not what the
                                           manufacturer thinks it should fetch.
                                                                                     establishing best
practice. They will include medicines      This is essentially what the UK           medical practice
that are particularly safe, efficacious    Office of Fair Trading proposed
and cost-effective in their treatment      in its recent review of the British       that its products
protocols, and exclude those that          medicines pricing scheme. It
are not – as recently happened             recommended that the current              really work and
in the UK, when NICE ruled that            “profit cap and price cut” scheme
Aricept, Exelon and Reminyl should         be replaced with a value-based            provide value for
only be prescribed for people with
moderate to severe symptoms
                                           pricing system in which the prices
                                           of products are set by comparing          money
of Alzheimer’s disease because             their clinical value with that of other
they “did not make enough of a             treatments for the same condition.72
difference” to justify the cost of
                                           When a new therapy is launched,
giving them to patients in earlier
                                           the manufacturer will also be
stages of the disease.70
                                           expected to assume a much greater
It is impossible to predict just how       share of the financial risk. At least
many medicines will fail to pass           one such deal already exists; in
muster. But in one recent analysis of      September 2006, GlaxoSmithKline
45 frequently cited studies claiming       struck an agreement with two
that certain treatments worked,            European governments under which
nearly a third of the original findings    the prices of two new medicines
proved wrong.71 If this were true          will be increased or reduced,
of all the medicines on the market,        once enough data are available to
and the industry were still reliant on     judge their true efficacy and cost-
blockbusters in 2020, the impact           effectiveness.73 In future, such
would be punitive; Big Pharma had          risk-sharing arrangements will be
273 major products with average            commonplace.
sales of $963m apiece in 2006,
                                           The remit of healthcare payers is
suggesting that the fate of about 85
                                           growing, then. They are not just
medicines with aggregate revenues
                                           negotiating prices, they are starting
of about $82 billion (in today’s
                                           to stipulate best medical practice –
terms) would be in question.
                                           and access to extensive amounts of
That said, the failure rate itself might   outcomes data will give them much
not be so high. Extensive outcomes         more ammunition. By 2020, Pharma

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                17
will have to prove that its products                    Medicines for different                   of affluence differs considerably
really work, provide value for money                    markets                                   both among and within countries.
and are better than alternative forms                                                             Mexico’s per capita gross national
of intervention. It will have to charge                 The changing global epidemiological       income (measured in international
much lower prices for new therapies                     profile has yet other implications.       dollars) is over 10 times higher
or formulations offering only minor                     We have already discussed the             than India’s, for example, while
improvements on treatments that                         extent to which demand for                the wealthiest 20% of the Brazilian
already exist, and even when it is                      medicines for chronic diseases is         population enjoy incomes that are
marketing medicines that represent                      spreading to the developing world.        over 30 times higher than those of
a genuine breakthrough, it will have                    But differences in ethnic origin,         the poorest 20% (see Table 3).
to be much more flexible in its                         diet and environmental factors            In short, the markets of the
approach to pricing such therapies.                     have produced marked variations           developing world possess very
Lastly, it will have to build very                      in the nature and incidence of the        different clinical and economic
much better relationships with the                      disease subtypes from which these         attributes – and these are by
agencies that perform the health                        populations suffer (see Table 2).         no means the only features that
technology assessments on which                         Ethnic origins likewise play a large      separate them. They vary in their
many healthcare payers will rely,                       part in determining how people            use of traditional medicines, the
since it currently has very little input                respond to particular therapies.          robustness of their laws governing
into such evaluations.
                                                        The rate at which the E7 populations      the protection of intellectual
                                                        are aging – and thus likely to suffer     property, their healthcare
                                                        from the diseases of aging – also         infrastructure and so forth. Any
                                                        varies substantially. By 2020, 15.2%      company that wants to serve these
                                                        of the Russian population will be 65      markets successfully will therefore
                                                        or older, compared with just 7% of        have to devise strategies that are
                                                        those living in India.74 And the level    tailored to their individual needs.

Table 2: There are marked variations in the incidence of the disease subtypes from which the E7 populations suffer

 Cancer site                Brazil             China                India            Indonesia   Mexico       Russia            Turkey

 Oesophagus                   6.4               26.2                  5.5                 0.4      1.4          8.4               1.7
 Stomach                    15.5                39.9                  4.2                 2.5      9.0         44.4               9.6
 Colon & rectum             11.0                13.3                  3.6                 8.9      5.6         32.7               7.4
 Liver                        2.6               37.9                  1.7                 8.4      3.3          5.6               2.1
 Pancreas                     3.1                 3.8                 1.1                 1.4      3.1          9.5               2.0
 Larynx                       6.5                 1.5                 4.5                 1.5      3.6          9.8               6.4
 Lung                       15.8                40.7                  6.6                14.2     11.2         80.4              37.3
 Skin melanoma                2.1                 0.2                 0.3                 0.3      1.0          3.0               0.8
 Prostate                   37.1                  1.5                 3.1                 4.7     19.2         15.6               6.1
 Testis                       1.5                 0.5                 0.6                 0.9      3.3          2.2               1.4
 Kidney etc.                  2.6                 2.0                 0.9                 1.4      3.7         12.6               1.7
 Bladder                      6.6                 3.6                 2.3                 2.9      3.8         15.3               8.6
 Leukaemia                    5.2                 5.7                 2.8                 3.8      5.6          8.6               5.1

Source: International Agency for Research on Cancer, Globocan 2002 database
Note: Crude rate of cancer in males in the E7 countries (incidence per 100,000 people)
18                                                                                                                     PricewaterhouseCoopers
Table 3: The level of affluence varies substantially both among and within the E7
countries

                              Per Capita
                                                       Percentage Share of Income
                                                            or Consumption                   The bottom line:
 Country                      GNI (PPP$)            Lowest 20%           Highest 20%         The markets of the
 Brazil                          3,000                  2.6                  62.1
                                                                                             developing world
 China                           1,500                  4.7                  50.0
 India                            630                   8.9                  43.3            are heterogeneous,
 Indonesia                       1,130                  8.4                  43.3            and Pharma must
 Mexico                          6,930                  4.3                  55.1
 Russia                          3,410                  6.1                  46.6            understand their
 Turkey                          3,750                  5.3                  49.7            specific needs
Source: World Bank Development Indicators 2006

Healthy habits and                               Similarly, some countries are waging
fab jabs                                         war against the world’s spreading
                                                 waistlines, although recent research
A growing number of governments                  suggests that genes play a major
in both developed and developing                 role, too (see sidebar, Fat is an FTO
countries are also trying to shift               issue).76 Australia, the US and Chile
the focus from the treatment of                  have all launched national anti-
disease to its prevention. At least 18           obesity initiatives, for example,77 while
countries have already introduced                Europe’s health ministers recently
nationwide bans on smoking in                    approved the world’s first charter to
enclosed public places, as have a                fight fat.78 The Chinese government
number of US states.75                           is battling the juvenile bulge by
                                                 requiring students to exercise or play
Fat is an FTO issue                              sports for an hour a day at school.79
                                                 And, in 2006, the British government
Researchers at the Peninsula Medical
                                                 announced plans to introduce
School and Oxford University recently
found evidence that people with two
                                                 “Life Checks”, as well as providing
copies of a particular variant of the FTO        more support services for keeping
gene have a 70% higher risk of obesity           physically and mentally well.80
than those with none, and weigh an
                                                 Most of these initiatives are far
average 3kg more. Those with one copy
                                                 too small to make a fundamental
of the variant (which differs from the other
allele by a single mutation in the DNA           difference to mankind’s
sequence) have a 30% higher risk of being        health, despite all the political
obese. They estimate that half of all white      grandstanding that accompanies
Europeans carry one copy of the variant,         them. The amount of money
and one in six has two copies. The team          governments invest in such
hopes that further research to understand        measures is still just a fraction of
the gene may help unravel the basic              the sums they spend on healthcare
biology of obesity and pave the way for          as a whole. Nevertheless, they
the development of medicines that can            are indicative of the direction in
prevent it.
                                                 which the world is slowly moving.

Pharma 2020: The vision                                                                                       19
Social and economic pressures are                            major players – GlaxoSmithKline,
                       gradually causing a sea-change in                            Merck, sanofi-aventis, Wyeth
                       attitudes towards healthcare.                                and Novartis (via its acquisition
The bottom line: The                                                                of Chiron) – have traditionally
                       Fears about bio-terrorism and a flu
increasing emphasis    pandemic have also kick-started
                                                                                    dominated the field, but a number of
                                                                                    smaller pharmaceutical companies
                       a new wave of public investment
on prevention          in vaccines, while philanthropic
                                                                                    have also entered the fray.
                       institutions like the Bill & Melinda                         Moreover, the range of indications
of disease will        Gates Foundation are funding                                 they are researching is surprisingly
provide Pharma         research into vaccines for malaria
                       and other tropical diseases.81
                                                                                    varied. It includes vaccines for
                                                                                    cocaine addiction, diabetes,
with new business      And the success of Gardasil has
                       demonstrated that it is possible to
                                                                                    hypertension, Alzheimer’s disease,
                                                                                    psoriasis, food allergies, rheumatoid
opportunities          make a profit from such products.                            arthritis and nicotine withdrawal.
                       The US, German, French, Italian                              But oncology is by far the most
                       and Austrian health authorities have                         significant new therapeutic area;
                       recommended that every girl be                               according to IMS, there are 90
                       vaccinated with Gardasil,82 and the                          therapeutic (as distinct from
                       US public programme to vaccinate                             prophylactic) vaccines for cancer in
                       all minors will generate at least $2                         the pipeline, and more than two-
                       billion of sales alone.83                                    thirds of them are in late-stage
                                                                                    development (see Figure 9).86
                       The vaccines sector is growing
                       rapidly, then; there are now 245                             However, conventional vaccines are
                       pure vaccines and 11 combination                             very different from other therapies
                       vaccines in clinical development,84                          in several respects. They usually
                       and some industry experts estimate                           require very large safety and efficacy
                       that the market could be worth as                            trials using healthy volunteers;
                       much as $42 billion by 2015.85 Five                          long-term surveillance to ensure

                       Figure 9: Many of the new vaccines in the pipeline depart from the conventional
                       vaccines model
                                                           100
                                                           90
                          No. of Vaccines in Development

                                                           80
                                                           70
                                                           60
                                                           50
                                                           40
                                                           30
                                                           20
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                       Source: IMS Knowledgelink, January 2007
20                                                                                                      PricewaterhouseCoopers
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