In the challenging landscape of the pharmaceutical industry, marked by intensifying competition, increasing regulatory standards, and escalating clinical development and launch expenses, it is imperative to adopt a more comprehensive perspective. Astonishingly, the cost to develop a single drug has surged from US$1.2 billion in 2013 to a staggering US$2 billion in 2021, all while the average peak sales have mainly remained unchanged.

The traditional fixation on new product launches to generate growth is no longer sufficient. 

Considering mounting development costs, a more important role should be given to Life Cycle Management (LCM) as a mean to optimize revenue from mature brands in order to fuel continued innovation. 

Organizing products into portfolios allows pharmaceutical companies to develop expertise, better answer patients and healthcare practitioners (HCPs) needs. Becoming an expert in a specific indication or therapeutic field can bring company recognition, trigger customer retention and better answer patients’ needs. Expertise in a specific Mechanism of Action or in a specific technological platform can potentially reduce clinical development time and improve success rate, simplify manufacturing, and simplify IP protection. Focusing on a portfolio allows pharmaceuticals companies to better “own” their market, develop synergies in order to be more efficient and try to protect their market from the competition.