If the word chocolate has you thinking ’sweet’, or ’sinful’ think again. Words that should spring to mind are ‘dark’, ‘healthy’ or even just ‘expensive’.

A new report says that more people are buying dark chocolate because it’s associated with promoting good health, and that this segment of the chocolate market is seeing growing sales. It also finds that the chocolate market has benefited from sales in pricier products.

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Is your internet connection at home being difficult? No sweat, you can soon run down and check your email on the nearest traffic light.

About 400 cities in the US and UK have deployed or are currently building municipal wireless internet connections which will see service providers using the city’s infrastructure to provide community wireless access, says a new report.

In the next five years, the spend on municipal wireless in the UK and US will reach $6.4 billion, as local governments and internet service providers recognise the benefits these networks offer, predicts the report.

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Recent figures show that the global generics market grew by 20% in 2005 – three times the amount by which the pharma sector grew, and four times the growth of patented drugs. In fact, Cygnus predicts continued growth for the sector in the next five years, forecasting a CAGR of 13.62% for 2006-2010.

Analysts have identified the patent expiries of some of the pharmaceutical industry’s biggest brands as the main catalyst for success for the generics sector. Datamonitor has warned that drugs worth almost $140 billion in sales will come off patent by 2016. This may be considered a conservative estimate. Elsewhere, experts predict that patents for branded pharmaceuticals with sales of over $100 billion will expire by 2010.

Continue reading “‘Big Pharma’ must plan ahead as patent expiries stimulate generics growth” »

Close examination of the pharmaceutical industry at present reveals a fairly troubled patient. The symptoms have gradually been deteriorating; drug development costs are soaring, R&D pipelines have yielded limited returns resulting in a steady drop in the number of product launches, and generic competition has intensified. At the same time, patent expiries have hit hard, with more pain to follow soon. In addition, the global healthcare market has shifted, with emerging stakeholders – most notably patients and payers – assuming greater importance and forcing pharma to take a different approach. With global healthcare budgets under the microscope, pharma is under intolerable pressure to reduce the cost of its medicines.

Continue reading “Could smaller be beautiful for restructuring pharma?” »