Abstract
By combining innovative science with years of massive investment, drug makers seek to turn newly discovered chemicals into revolutionary blockbuster drugs that generate billions of dollars in revenue. So every year, they collectively spend tens of billions of dollars on the high-risk pursuit of the next Prozac or Viagra. But should they? This article analyses key themes around differentiation that we have found to be common among blockbusters, and examines the implications for creating future billion-dollar drugs.
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Acknowledgements
We would like to thank several McKinsey colleagues for their support and hard work in helping put this material together, in particular Maria Gordian, Jeb Keiper, Margaret Kruk, Georgios Zamanakos and Amy Chen.
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Bruce Booth, D.Phil., is an Associate Principal, and Rodney Zemmel, Ph.D., a Principal
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Booth, B., Zemmel, R. Quest for the best. Nat Rev Drug Discov 2, 838–841 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1203
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd1203
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