Big Pharma's effort in the search for innovative drugs, despite the continuous 'fixing' of the prices of medicines, is not appreciated by the company, which also benefits from the fruits of this research.
This is the outburst of Marijn Dekkers, CEO of Bayer, who, speaking at Bayer's annual conference in Leverkusen, underlined: "An environment that considers innovation as something desirable and values it as a consequence is fundamental".
The supermanager acknowledged that national governments are under pressure to reduce costs, but the executives' approach conceals "a sense of panic which pervades the responses to the problem". Bayer "will contribute to the development of cost-effective solutions ... but it is important to maintain a sense of proportion," Dekkers stressed, adding that "the money we make on drugs today pays for the development of tomorrow's drugs."
This is the case of the new anticoagulant Xarelto (rivaroxaban), which cost Bayer and its partner J&J 2 billion euros. If revenues from commercial products are reduced too drastically, 'in the medium term the effect may be that research-based companies will lack the resources to develop medicines'.
Margherita Lopes – March 2, 2012 – PharmaKronos
[Ed.: the alloy in which the sculpture on the right was forged is copper and tin (bronze)]
Bayer, profit almost doubled in 2011: http://www.informatori.aiisf.it/HDefault.aspx?Newsid=5828
Marijn E. Dekkers, 53, received compensation for the 2010 fiscal year totaling €3,997,000.00 [source Bloomberg]
