Diversification May Be At Play As Big Pharma Deals With Challenges

Pharmaceuticals have been, and are forecasted to be, the main revenue driver for big pharma, a peer set group of companies that surpass more than $15 billion in annual revenue. But these companies' reliance on pharmaceuticals could shift as current market-leading drugs continue to face declining sales due to competition from generics, and now biosimilars, plus industry pressure to reduce prices and improve R&D productivity. One approach to alleviate that reliance on pharmaceuticals is diversification into non-pharma markets.

Still, many big pharma players have increased efforts on innovative drug development. Pfizer Inc., for instance, has been trying...