Deciding priorities in Pharma

Excerpt

It is commonly assumed that the primary objective of Pharma is to generate and maximize profit to share-holders rather than to serve humanity by the prevention and cure of disease and furthering science. Pharma is also felt to lack an incentive to fund and deliver personalized medicines, so it is up to the scientific community to do that (AT Fojo, Head of the Experimental Therapeutics Section, NCI at AACR 2010). Meanwhile, there are doubts within Pharma itself: 'increasing regulatory requirements, related escalating costs of development, and well publicized product withdrawals are leading those in the industry and its investors to wonder where future value can be realized,' (Ken Fyvie, expert in commercial strategy). …