The
main reason for governments around the world to encourage the pharmaceutical
industry is to support Research and Development – R&D - with a view to the discovery
of new drugs of
future benefit to mankind. Commercial pharmaceutical companies have played a
central role in the development of almost all medicines available today. The
industry has made a major contribution to the health and life expectancy of the
world’s population.
Apart
from encouraging R&D the most important reasons to support the pharmaceutical industry are
economic: to create highly skilled jobs and in the case of individual countries
to promote exports. Finally, there is a benefit to the advancement of science,
which many economists, pure scientists and academics would see as an end in
itself.
The
two key questions relevant to any major pharmaceutical company merger are: