Do rare disease drugs with tiny patient populations lie outside the profitability continuum that runs from small-molecule primary care products to specialist biologics?

Improving efficacy by combining drugs has been a mainstay of cancer therapy but adding new targeted drugs together based on very early-stage data is not working out, especially when one of the drugs is barely active on its own.

It is easy for university researchers to criticize the pharmaceutical sector’s R&D productivity when they ignore the contributions of all the drugs that have been approved, and all those that have been rejected.

Some commercial-stage biotechnology companies blame the pandemic for their declining sales and continued losses. While an acquisition by a bigger company might once have been an aspiration, further fundraisings seem to be the more likely outcome.

Another blow-out quarter from Pfizer provided the impetus for an acquisition. But the history of recent commercial-stage biotech transactions and the risky nature of all early-stage companies suggest that the floodgates will not burst open.

A post-pandemic rebound in oncology sales contrasts with the lagging revenues of drugs administered by primary care and office-based specialists. Declining COVID-19 vaccine, diagnostic and treatment revenues could add further volatility.