In 1992, US presidential candidate Ross Perot declared that he was expecting to hear a "giant sucking sound" as jobs rushed out of the country because of new free-trade agreements. When it comes to the pharmaceutical industry, jobs may be disappearing but globalization doesn't seem to be the culprit. The reasons are, in fact, a mix of mergers and acquisitions, potential blockbuster drugs failing to deliver on their promise, patents on other blockbusters expiring, and a wave of lawsuits and bad publicity over adverse effects of drugs that had cleared clinical trials.
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