Healthcast 2020: The customisation of diagnosis, care and cure

By 2020, healthcare systems will offer more proactive support to individuals to help them manage their own health. Many health systems today say they deliver patient-centered care, but PwC's research found only pockets in which this is true. Health organizations remain focused on their own concerns, not necessarily on what is best for the patient.

Healthcare unwired - New business models delivering care anywhere

Mobile technologies hold great promise for keeping people healthy, managing diseases, and lowering healthcare costs. For years, telehealth has provided clinical services for individuals who lacked physical access: farmers in remote communities, soldiers near the battlefield, inmates in prison. Now, these technologies have demonstrated the ability to benefit almost any individual. Mobile devices are the most personal technology that consumers own. They enable consumers to establish personal preferences for sharing and communicating. They can enable health and wellness to be delivered through mass personalization.

The face of biotech, a roundtable summary on the medium and long-term biotech landscape - March 2010

PwC recently organised two exclusive think-tank sessions with key opinion leaders from the biotech industry to discuss what the medium to long-term biotech landscape will look like in 2020. The aim was to gather ideas as input for a research paper that will be published in September 2010, but now dealing specifically with the challenges facing the biotech industry. These documents report the main outcome of the two roundtable sessions held in December 2009 and March 2010. The two reports will be consolidated into one with input from similar PwC initiatives around Europe.

The face of biotech, a roundtable summary on the medium and long-term biotech landscape - December 2009

PwC recently organised two exclusive think-tank sessions with key opinion leaders from the biotech industry to discuss what the medium to long-term biotech landscape will look like in 2020. The aim was to gather ideas as input for a research paper that will be published in September 2010, but now dealing specifically with the challenges facing the biotech industry. These documents report the main outcome of the two roundtable sessions held in December 2009 and March 2010. The two reports will be consolidated into one with input from similar PwC initiatives around Europe.

Reversing Course

With venture capital investments in the tech sector down for the first six months of 2009, the life sciences industry offered one of the few bright spots during tough economic times. Reversing Course?, a new report from PwC, looks at how the Life Sciences sector is performing and the factors influencing its success.

Diagnostics 09: moving towards personalised medicine

The fabric of the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) industry is changing. New names are appearing at the top and some emerging specialists are being valued more than some traditional big names: Siemens and Inverness entered the ranks of the top ten by sales after a flurry of deals in 2006-2007, and the women's healthcare specialist, Hologic, increased its value through key combinations in 2007-2008.
In this new report, PwC reviews deal activity in the in vitro diagnostics (IVD) sector and significant events for personalised medicine, a field which is fast rising to prominence in healthcare innovation.

2008 Annual Global CEO survey: Pharmaceutical industry Summary

Redefining success, the PwC 12th Annual Global CEO Survey, explores how CEOs are reconsidering the fundamentals of business in response to extreme operating conditions and assuming responsibility for issues that were once considered outside the scope of industry. We interviewed 1,124 CEOs around the world between September 10 and December 2, 2008.

Our findings show that they are collaborating more extensively to balance the interests of increasingly influential stakeholders. They are also seeking new kinds of information to help them anticipate changes in critical business drivers.

Here, we look specifically at what the 47 CEOs in the pharmaceutical industry think, and how they are dealing with a combination of challenges such as mankind has never seen before.

Biotech: Lifting big pharma prospects with Biologics

Therapeutic and diagnostic biologics helped drive venture capital investment in the overall human biotech sector in 2008 and are the fastest growing subsectors within the life sciences industry. Read more on the impact biotech is having on pharma.

IFRS - Issues and Solutions for the Pharmaceutical and Life Sciences Industries – Vol I & II UPDATES

This report is an update of the 2004 and 2005 volumes 1 and 2 of IFRS Issues and Solutions for the Pharmaceutical Industry. The objective of this new edition is to give greater clarity on various grey areas of definition and interpretation that could have been raised following the implementation of the standards in 2005.

IFRS: Issues and Solutions for the Pharmaceuticals and Life Sciences Industries - Vol III (Jan. 2008) Accounting for licensing and development agreements

One of the big problems life science and biotechnology companies face in order to flourish is the lack of adequate and appropriate long term financing. At the same time, the pharmaceutical industry had been dealing with a number of challenges related to the loss of patent protection and the need to adjust to the new ways of performing research. Often the solution to these problems has been to partner with another company.

Investing in China's pharmaceutical Industry – 2^nd Edition

Investing in China's Pharmaceutical Industry is the second edition of a paper published by PwC looking into the current pharmaceutical market conditions in China. The report covers various subjects that are considered to be of concern to the pharmaceutical industry and/or investors in the pharmaceutical (pharma) industry in China. This publication builds on the foundation set in the first report, published in 2006. The pharmaceutical/ life sciences landscape is changing fast in China and this new edition reviews, updates and expands on the following key areas: Traditional Chinese Medicine (TCM), China's OTC Market, Medical Devices, CROs and CMOs, Development of Innovation, Tax Incentives in China, Bribery & Corruption in Sales and Marketing, Challenge of Drug Pricing, Distribution Systems, Intellectual Property Protection, Market Consolidation and Financial Impacts of Investments.

Knowledge Line: Achieving compliance as a competitive advantage

Download Achieving compliance as a competitive advantage through the updated AdvaMed Code of Ethics.

A major overhaul of the Advanced Medical Technology Association (AdvaMed) Code of Ethics on Interactions with Health Care Professionals presents an opportunity for medical device companies to rethink their approach to compliance as a business advantage that fosters innovation and contributes to sustainability.

More publications of the Knowledge line serie.

Knowledge Line: Supply chain risk assessment

For pharmaceutical, life sciences, and medical device companies, supply chain breakdowns not only bring immediate damage to the affected company, but also can threaten human health and well-being by causing medical supply shortages. In this point of view piece PwC highlights how a continuous supply chain monitoring process that begins with supplier selection and relies on key risk indicators and early intervention is essential to preventing and mitigating the impact of supply chain breakdowns.

Leveraging IT risk management to boost competitive advantage

Achieving integrated information technology, governance, risk, and compliance

The pharmaceutical and life sciences industries face unprecedented compliance challenges, and the close regulatory scrutiny of the industry is likely to only increase. Globalisation, information protection requirements, business partnerships, heightened transparency expectations, external reporting obligations, and other drivers are forcing companies to re-examine their enterprise approach to information technology (IT) governance, risk, and compliance (GRC).

Pay-for-performance arrangements IFRS Revenue Recognition Guidance

Pay-for-performance is a pricing concept under which the price paid for a given medicine is intended to reflect the economic benefits of a drug at an individual patient level. The idea that those that fund healthcare, whether it be insurances companies (as in the USA) or Governments and the public purse (as in much of Europe), should only pay for drugs that have a demonstrable benefit over other treatments is not new and in recent years both Governments and regulators have showed increasing reluctance to pay for "me-too" or "copy-cat" drugs.

Pharma & Life Sciences Tax News

Published by our global pharmaceuticals & life sciences industry group, these informational bulletins will periodically review developing tax issues, new IRS pronouncements and tax legal rulings that affect the pharmaceutical and healthcare products industry.

Pharma 2020: Challenging business models – Which path will you take?

The fourth in the Pharma 2020 series, explains how even the largest pharmaceutical companies will have to collaborate more closely with players inside and outside the sector to be able to respond to the demands from the different stakeholder communities. To do so they will have to 'profit together', by joining forces with a wide range of organisations, from academic institutions, hospitals and technology providers to companies offering compliance programmes, nutritional advice, stress management, physiotherapy, exercise facilities and health screening.

Pharma 2020: Marketing the Future – Which path will you take?

The third in the Pharma 2020 series, outlines a confluence of dynamics that lead to a new marketing and sales system with a smaller, more agile and smarter sales force. The pharma industry is no longer being rewarded for incremental innovation, me-too products and selling the most pills. Companies will need to demonstrate that their brand adds value to patients and they will have to offer a package of products and health services that the market not only wants and needs but is willing to pay a premium for. The paper highlights some very strong facts related to the need for pharma to change its marketing and sales functions in order to sustain future growth and performance.

Pharma 2020: The vision: Which path will you take?

By 2020 the pharmaceutical market is anticipated to more than double to US$1.3 trillion, with the E7 countries — Brazil, China, India, Indonesia, Mexico, Russia and Turkey — accounting around for one fifth of global pharmaceutical sales. Further, incidence of chronic conditions in the developing world will increasingly resemble those of the developed world.

Pharma 2020: The vision: Which path will you take?indicates that the current pharmaceutical industry business model is both economically unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly enough to produce the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets. In order to make the most of these future growth opportunities, the industry must fundamentally change the way it operates.

Pharma 2020: Virtual R&D – Which path will you take?

The second paper in the PwC Pharma 2020 series, explores how pharma companies could dramatically improve the R&D productivity. It contends that by 2020 the R&D process may be shortened by two-thirds, success rates may dramatically increase, and clinical trial costs could be cut substantially. New computer based technologies will create a greater understanding of the biology of disease and the evolution of "Virtual man"; to enable researchers to predict the effects of new drug candidates before they enter human beings. Along with changes underway in the regulatory and socio-political environment, this will enable pharma to overcome one of the most fundamental issues it needs to resolve over the next decade.

Aligning current demands with a Pharma 2020 vision: the role of technology

Technology and IT developments will be central to all these aspects of the future.A key challenge for companies is how best to prepare for this future while also addressing the pressures of today. One of the big strides that pharma companies will need to make is to create much better connectivity and interfaces between different parts of their value chain – crucially between R&D, manufacturing, the supply chain, the patient and, also, the regulatory sphere. Silo working remains a strong characteristic of many companies. This is reinforced by the fact that much of the technological architecture is in the form of separate standalone systems – one for one part of R&D, another for another part, a quite different one for manufacturing and so on. This is rapidly becoming unsustainable and will be completely so by 2020.

The changing dynamics of pharma outsourcing in Asia. Are you readjusting your sights?

The dynamics of pharma outsourcing and location decisions in Asia are changing. Cost reduction is being augmented and companies need to set their strategic sights on a future world. This new report from PwC highlights the dramatic change and development in pharmaceutical outsourcing in Asia.

The report,The changing dynamics of pharma outsourcing in Asia, covers three significant developments- the trend towards high end innovation, rapid expansion of clinical trials in Asia, and a scaling up of pharma manufacturing in Asia.

US GAAP: Issues & solutions for the pharma & life sciences industry

This report addresses particular accounting issues the pharmaceuticals and life sciences sector faces when using the US Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (US GAAP). The aim is to highlight the industry-specific factors which need to be considered, and to provide an opinion on the most pertinent accounting solutions for commercial situations under US GAAP.