The Pharmaceutical Industry And The Drug Commodity

In 2019, the pharmaceutical sector spent $83 billion on research and development in the US alone. These costs were incurred on a range of activities, including development innovations such as product enhancements, the discovery and testing of novel medicines, and clinical trials for marketing or safety monitoring. After accounting for the effects of inflation, this sum is about ten times the annual expenditure of the sector in the 1980s.
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Medicines as a product 

Finished medicines, vaccines, and serums are just some of the products offered by the 817 companies that manufacture and market medicines in Germany, 312 in Switzerland, and 150 in Austria. 

Among the most important manufacturers are Hexal, Novartis, and Ratiopharm. They operate in a dynamic market. Particularly in the treatment of cancer and pain, advantages can be achieved.

In the pharmaceutical industry, unlike in other industries such as the car or food industries, it is usually the consumers who decide what to buy and what not to buy, because they usually depend on the medicine.  

Development of medicines

In recent years, the pharmaceutical industry has developed the most. One of the elements that favoured the expansion of this sector was the general progress in science and technology. The pharmaceutical industry, like other industries, has adapted to the development of more sustainable production methods, goods, and processes. Due to their biocompatibility, biodegradability, origin, safety, etc., biopolymers in particular have become a viable option for this application. But despite this, the question is: why do these drugs mostly treat only the symptoms and not the causes? 

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Spending on developing cures through gene therapy will increase in comparison with the cost of palliative treatments. The treatment of monogenic diseases currently costs two to four trillion dollars annually worldwide. These treatments can only improve a person’s well-being or temporarily restore function, but they do not address the root cause of the disease. 

By prioritising the sale of treatments over cures, Big Pharma makes itself vulnerable. Voices are being raised that pharmaceutical companies have turned patients into lifelong money-makers by jacking up the price of drugs over time. Instead of investing in the innovation of cures, they continue to market the treatment of diseases. Price increases flow directly into these companies in the form of additional profits. Any pharmaceutical company that has a monopoly or dominant drug for a particular disease needs to be particularly careful, as it can easily appear to be encouraging monopolistic pricing behaviour towards patients who are tied to the drug by their disease and can be ransomed for whatever price the market or the patient is willing to pay to avoid pain, suffering, or death.

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