The future of the life sciences industry

Between December 2004 and January 2005, the Economist Intelligence Unit, in collaboration with Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, conducted a research program on the future of the life sciences industries, including pharmaceutical firms, biotech companies and makers of medical devices). The research consisted of an opinion survey and a series of interviews with senior executives. The findings? According to this white paper, growing business pressure will help to speed up industrial consolidation and convergence. And the fortunes of pharmaceutical and biotech companies are diverging, whether or not they converge in the same company.

Executives interviewed agreed with the survey's main finding concerning the wide scope of impending structural changes, and several argued that the distinction between pharmaceutical companies and biotechnology firms was eroding. A main finding of the survey is that pharmaceutical companies will grow more slowly than biotech firms and medical device manufacturers.

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