As Pfizer stated during the Bear Stearns presentation, "due to changing markets and political environments" (i.e. governments throughout the world less concerned about intellectual property rights and reimbursement for me-too follow-on drugs), the trend to combat lost patent exclusivity will focus on developing biologic compounds that are significantly harder to copy (make generically) than their small-molecule counterparts.
The movement toward development of biologics is why AstraZeneca acquired MedImmune for $15 billion earlier in the year and why Pfizer is beefing up its pipeline with 25 biopharmaceutical compounds in preclinical or later stages, and another 40 in discovery. As Amgen (Nasdaq: AMGN) has shown with Epogen, that good complex biologic can provide years of generic-free blockbuster sales even after expiration of its key patents."
