As has been widely reported, many research-based pharmaceutical companies are currently facing patent expiries on their leading branded medicines. A review of recent annual reports indicates the significant impact these expiries are causing to the companies’ revenue as they struggle to fill the gap with new medicines and line extensions.AstraZeneca’s 2012 annual report [1] graphically illustrates this point. The company’s total 2012 sales decreased by $5.6 billion compared with 2011, and $4.5 billion of this figure related to loss of exclusivity of several brands in their portfolio. The biggest loss of revenue related to their antipsychotic drug Seroquel? (quetiapine), on which the patent expired in 2012 – entry of generic quetiapine into the market resulted in a decrease of over $3 billion in Seroquel sales from the previous year.Pfizer’s 2012 financial report [2] shows the effect of patent expiry in an even more startling manner. The patent for the company’s cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor? (atorvastatin) expired in November 2011 in the USA and in spring 2012 in Europe. This resulted in a decrease of $5.6 billion in Lipitor sales compared with 2011, accounting for almost the entire $6.3 billion decrease in the company’s revenue that year.
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