The biotech industry draws robust investment and
encounters new challenges in 2007

Patent expirations, personalized medicine and globalization are fundamentally reinventing the industry’s business models

Enduring strengths — and the strength to endure

This year’s "Beyond Borders" report highlights a biotechnology industry that continues to grow rapidly, as companies raise record amounts of venture capital and the potential value of mergers, acquisitions and alliances reaches new heights. The report also identifies key emerging challenges confronting companies in 2008, including uncertain public equity markets and a more challenging product regulatory environment.

With data and insights covering the major markets — United States, Europe, Canada and Asia-Pacific — the report looks behind the numbers and teases out the implications of key trends for executives and business leaders.

Reinnovation and reinvention: sweeping changes ahead

"Beyond Borders" also highlights an industry that is being fundamentally reinvented. Over the next decade or so, the drug industry will encounter three sweeping trends that will compel it to revisit its business models:

• Reinventing big pharma: as they face unprecedented patent expirations, pharma companies are trying to boost earnings by cutting costs and making deals. But these approaches can only buy so much time – longer term, pharma companies need to reinvent their structures and incentives to improve the productivity of their innovation efforts.
• The rise of personalized medicine: the adoption of personalized medicine is being hastened by business drivers such as pricing pressures and safety concerns. "Beyond Borders" predicts that personalized medicine will profoundly alter the competitive landscape, changing the bargaining power of small and big drug companies.
• Globalization: globalization is radically altering the traditional competitive advantages of pharma and biotech companies. While the initial focus has been to lower drug development costs, these financial gains will be temporary, according to the report. The real opportunity is for western companies to work with partners in emerging markets to develop innovative products suited for local market conditions.

Each of these drivers of reinvention receives plenty of attention by itself. But when you combine their impacts, what are the implications for business models? What will the industries we know today as biotechnology and pharmaceuticals look like a decade from now? And what can executives do to prepare for this while staying competitive?

This year’s report sets out to answer these questions in a core group of articles.

Request your copy of "Beyond Borders: global biotechnology report 2008" today to gain critical insights into the emerging trends facing this industry. To download an electronic copy of the report, please click here (pdf, 4.2mb).