While the changes are often less trivial than "adding more sugar" the drug companies have been using their ability to modify drugs slightly to extend patent life. This essentially got them through the last 10 years in many cases. But for most of the big money making drugs, they're out of options. It's interesting to me (having worked for 8 years in pharma R&D) how little the general public and news media have been reporting on the slowly unfolding total meltdown of big pharma. They have been shedding jobs and down-sizing for quite some time. The whole drug business is in complete shambles with lousy R&D productivity and very little good news on the horizon. This is one of the main reasons I left the industry.
Comments
While the changes are often less trivial than "adding more sugar" the drug companies have been using their ability to modify drugs slightly to extend patent life. This essentially got them through the last 10 years in many cases. But for most of the big money making drugs, they're out of options. It's interesting to me (having worked for 8 years in pharma R&D) how little the general public and news media have been reporting on the slowly unfolding total meltdown of big pharma. They have been shedding jobs and down-sizing for quite some time. The whole drug business is in complete shambles with lousy R&D productivity and very little good news on the horizon. This is one of the main reasons I left the industry.