Does R&D pay?
Pharmaceutical R&D is notoriously risky, lengthy and costly; moreover, it does not always produce products of blockbuster status. The conventional route of fully discovering, developing and marketing a new chemical entity is followed by the large pharmaceutical companies, whereas other organizations in the pharmaceutical sector--such as generic or specialty companies and biotechnology companies--only operate over portions of the full R&D process. Here, we compare the ten-year financial performance of these three subsectors through their price/earnings ratios and their return on capital metrics to understand which of these strategic alternatives offered the best return to investors.
Cavalla
David
D
Numedicus Limited, Cambridge CB12DX, United Kingdom. david.cavalla@numedicus.co.uk
Minhas
Raman
R
D000818:Animals; D017277:Drug Approval / Q000191:economics / Q000379:methods; D016527:Drug Costs / Q000639:trends; D004345:Drug Industry / Q000191:economics* / Q000379:methods / Q000639:trends; D006801:Humans; D010330:Patents as Topic; D012106:Research / Q000191:economics* / Q000639:trends; D012107:Research Design