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What drives success for specialty pharmaceuticals?

Nature Reviews Drug Discovery volume 7, pages 563–567 (2008)Cite this article

Abstract

Specialty pharmaceuticals have become increasingly important in the global pharmaceutical landscape. Numerous large pharmaceutical companies are moving towards developing therapies for specialty markets, which are attractive owing to factors including the established commercial track record and lower commercial infrastructure costs. In this article, we analyse the key drivers of commercial success and failure for specialty pharmaceuticals.

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Figure 1: Specialty pharmaceuticals are becoming increasingly important in the overall pharmaceutical landscape.
Figure 2: Success factors for specialty pharmaceuticals.
Figure 3: Correlation of degree of novelty with key success factor.
Figure 4: Therapeutics area focus for specialty pharmaceuticals.

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Acknowledgements

The authors wish to thank J. Chiang, J. Davis, P. Sundar and D. Flaherty for their assistance in preparing this article.

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Author notes

  1. All the authors are at McKinsey & Company, 3075A Hansen Way, Palo Alto, California 94304, USA.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Philip Ma

Authors
  1. Mark Gudiksen
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  2. Edd Fleming
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  3. Laura Furstenthal
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  4. Philip Ma
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Philip Ma.

Supplementary information

Supplementary information S1 (box)

Major pharmaceutical companies are highlighting specialty products as a key area for future growth. (PDF 519 kb)

Supplementary information S2 (table)

List of drugs analyzed — top 36 successful drugs: specialty drugs launched 1994–2003 (PDF 158 kb)

Supplementary information S3 (table)

List of drugs analyzed — bottom 36 least successful drugs: specialty drugs launched 1994–2003 (PDF 159 kb)

Supplementary information S4 (table)

List of drugs analyzed — other drugs: specialty drugs launched 1994–2003 (PDF 257 kb)

Supplementary information S5 (box)

Methodology (PDF 139 kb)

Supplementary information S6 (box)

Methodology (PDF 206 kb)

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FURTHER INFORMATION

EvaluatePharma

IMS

McKinsey & Company

Pharmaprojects

The Medical Letter

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Cite this article

Gudiksen, M., Fleming, E., Furstenthal, L. et al. What drives success for specialty pharmaceuticals?. Nat Rev Drug Discov 7, 563–567 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrd2594

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