The latest figures from IMS Health show that worldwide sales for generic drugs increased just 3.6% to $78 billion for the twelve months ending in September, compared to 11.4% growth for the same period last year. The decline is attributed to price competition. In the US, the world’s largest generics market, where generics make up […]

Unable to raise funding, a number of biotechnology companies could soon go out of business. Five US biotech firms have filed for bankruptcy in the last month alone. Burrill & Co. report that in the first nine months of 2008, the amount of money raised by biotech companies fell 54% to $9.7 billion. Financing for […]

The European Chemical Industry Council (Cefic) forecasts that chemical production by the EU27 countries will decline 0.3% in 2009, after rising 0.2% this year. In contrast, US chemical production is expected to decline 1.1% this year before increasing 0.5% in 2009. Excluding pharmaceuticals, EU27 and US chemical output are each forecasted to decline this year, […]

The Industrial Research Institute reports that R&D spending by one thousand leading US R&D firms rose 9.9% last year to $216,951.8 million, down from 12.1% growth in 2006. Sales for the firms rose 7.4% last year to $4,999,500.5 million, resulting in R&D totaling 4.3% of sales. R&D as a percentage of profit was 37.9%, as […]

Capital spending by the semiconductor industry will not recover until 2010, according to the latest forecast from Gartner. This year, capital expenditures are expected to decline 25.7% to $47.1 billion, the biggest drop since 2002. Gartner attributes the decline to economic conditions and overcapacity in the memory business. The capital intensity of the semiconductor industry […]