Thursday, November 13, 2008

Large Pharma Cos Shift Focus To Research, From Cost Cuts

Pharmaceutical executives, faced with generic competition and other challenges, have shifted their primary focus from cost-cutting campaigns to reinvigorating research efforts, a new survey suggests.

Some 66% of industry executives said reinvigorating research-and-development was their top strategic initiative, while 40% said "optimizing costs" was the top priority, according to the survey released Wednesday.

That's a shift from last year, when a survey by E&Y together with The Economist found that 92% of executives ranked cost reduction as their number one initiative. "Large pharmaceutical companies have been intensely focused on costs for the last two years and are moving beyond short-term reductions to longer- term strategic cost management," the new report said.

READ MORE @ CNN MONEY