Factors in addition to the rejuvenation of pharmaceutical revenues and biotechnology product failures are likely to pull in opposite directions at the sector’s recovery from the pandemic.

Revenues are still elusive for a surprising number of the novel drugs approved by the FDA five years ago. Emergent safety issues and confirmatory clinical trial failures were less common than lack of competitiveness as the main reason for revenue weakness.

Recently launched branded drugs prescribed by specialist physicians and marketed by smaller commercial-stage biotech companies remain in the eye of the pandemic storm.

Emerging biopharma companies developed and launched 40% of all new drugs that hit the market in the US in 2020, a significant increase from five years ago, according to IQVIA.