The pharmaceutical industry currently faces significant challenges, including a decreasing output of new medical entities, ever increasing regulatory requirements and risk perception in society, and more recently, reimbursement issues due to the desire of healthcare systems to reduce costs. The reasons for this development are manifold: Most of the low-hanging fruit have been picked, and targets and diseases that are now being addressed are increasingly complex and challenging; society tends to focus more on potential risks than on the advantages of novel medications; and to demonstrate net clinical benefit often requires large and expensive late-phase clinical studies. As a consequence, pharmaceutical companies have reacted by filling their portfolios through mergers, followed by cost-cutting measures, including substantial reduction of their research activities, which will likely result in a further decrease in output of these organizations.
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