A Brief, Economic History of the Pharmaceutical Industry
From Reactive Over Disruptive to Digital
Today, the German/American company Biontech has published that their lead vaccine candidate against the virus SARS-CoV-2 shows promising results. The vaccine is in a so-called clinical phase 3 trial.
The novel virus was identified and sequenced in late 2019. Almost a year later, the world is on the dawn of a novel vaccine. A process that previously took about 5 to more than 15 years sped up to 12 months.
It is easy to take all the great inventions of our time for granted. In reality, not so long ago, it would have been impossible for the human race to develop anything helpful against this virus.
Join me for a brief recap of the economic history of the pharmaceutical industry.
How did the unique value chain evolve?
The five significant phases plus a disruptive pandemic
After 15 years in the pharmaceutical industry, I have divided the development of the sector into five major steps:
- Before 1870: Natural…
