The top ten specialty pharmaceutical companies earned revenues of $19.83bn (€15.4bn) in 2005, up from $17.30bn in 2004, but to safeguard their future these firms need to gear-up to face the challenge from big pharma companies.
They can do this by creating larger and more competitive market participants with sufficient resources to compete, as well as focus in niche segements such as drug delivery within generics.
"With increased competition from big pharma there is likely to be a significant threat to the top 10 specialty pharmaceutical companies, thus there is an urgent need to ensure competitiveness and growth to counter it," said Frost & Sullivan research analyst Barath Shankar S.
"There is a huge unmet need in several therapeutic markets, which can only be catered to with a focused approach driven by strategic partnerships between specialty pharmaceutical companies."
The report claims there is a risk of prolonged litigations over patents posing uncertainty over growth.
Nevertheless, the top ten specialty pharmaceutical companies have shown strong growth and are likely to accelerate ahead through well-planned in-licensing and acquisition strategies, the market research firm suggests.
