2016 was a year of great activity for the pharma industry, with economic uncertainties, seismic political shifts in the UK and US, and cost-containment measures in several countries. Consequently, PharmaBoardroom surveyed over 400 of its executive readership over four continents to get a sense of their optimism for the industry in 2017.
Readers were given four answer choices: “Yes, 2017 will be an awesome year for the industry”; “2017 should be decent but challenging”; “2017 will be the status quo – more of the same”; and “2017 looks bleak from an industry perspective”.
Of the 400+ respondents, very few took a negative stance on the industry’s prospects, with most plumping for “awesome” or “decent but challenging” (see chart below)
Overall Responses to the Survey
The global region with the most optimistic outlook was Asia-Pacific (see chart below). This is not surprising, given the confidence espoused by the national and regional industry leaders featured in PharmaBoardroom’s recent report on Singapore: a country at the cutting edge of pharma and healthcare R&D, with access to an enormous untapped market across the region. Also in Asia-Pacific, our report on the Philippines depicts how the new administration has put universal healthcare coverage at the top of its list of priorities, creating numerous opportunities for both domestic and international players.
Upcoming issues from this region include Taiwan, a global biotech center of excellence, and Indonesia, the fourth most populous nation on earth with big plans to expand access to healthcare throughout the country.
Responses from Asia-Pacific
Respondents in North America, perhaps with the new Trump administration’s somewhat unpredictable attitude to pharma in mind, were more likely to choose “decent but challenging” than “awesome” to describe the pharma industry’s 2017 prospects (see chart below)
Responses from North America
Respondents from another highly-developed region, Western Europe, still had a largely positive outlook but were even more likely than those based in North America to choose “decent but challenging” over “awesome.” Interviewees from our recent reports from Switzerland and Luxembourg in this region generally displayed positivity towards the industry’s prospects; Switzerland is fast emerging as “Europe’s brain” with a number of pharma MNCs choosing to base their regional and EMEA headquarters there, while Luxembourg is overcoming the limitations of its size by specializing in healthcare logistics, personalized medicine, and e-health.
Stay tuned for our upcoming issue on Ireland.
Responses from Western Europe
Writer: Patrick Burton
