Revenues for brand-name drugmakers will rise just 2%-3% in 2014, forecasts
ratings agency Fitch, but it adds that global pharmaceuticals is still one of
its highest-rated industries, and that the sector outlook remains
“stable.”
Moderate pressure from patent expiries, cost-containment policies in the
European Union (EU) and weak employment in the US will be only partly offset by
uptake of new products and strong growth in emerging markets, it says in a new
report, which expects no significant divergence in the trend in profitability
between US and EU-based drugmakers next year.
Fitch also believes that industry will find patent expiry levels in
2014 to be “manageable.”