Pharmaceutical industry

A drug manufacturer inspection by the US Food and Drug Administration

The pharmaceutical industry is an industry involved in medicine that discovers, develops, produces, and markets pharmaceutical goods for use as drugs that function by being administered to (or self-administered by) patients using such medications with the goal of curing or preventing disease (as well as possibly alleviating symptoms of illness or injury).[1][2] Pharmaceutical companies may deal in "generic" medications and medical devices without the involvement of intellectual property, in "brand" materials is specifically tied to a given company's history, or in both within different contexts. The industry's has various subdivisions (which include distinct areas such as manufacturing biologics) are all subject to a variety of laws and regulations that govern entire financial processes including the patenting, efficacy testing, safety evaluation, and marketing of these drugs. The global pharmaceuticals market produced treatments worth $1,228.45 billion in 2020, in total, and this showed a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 1.8% given the results of recent events (which includes the COVID-19 pandemic).[3]

In historical terms, a pharmaceutical industry as an intellectual concept arose within the middle to late 1800s inside of certain nation-states with developed economies such as Germany, Switzerland, and the United States given that multiple businesses engaging in synthetic organic chemistry, such as a number of firms generating dyestuffs derived from coal tar on a large scale, sought out new applications of their artificial materials in terms of human health. This trend to increased capital investment occurred in tandem with the scholarly study of pathology as a field advancing significantly, and a variety of businesses set up cooperative relationships with academic laboratories evaluating human injury and disease. Examples of industrial companies with a pharmaceutical focus that have endured to this day after such distant beginnings include Bayer (based out of Germany) and Pfizer (based out of the U.S.).[4]

  1. ^ McGuire, John L.; Hasskarl, Horst; Bode, Gerd; Klingmann, Ingrid; Zahn, Manuel (2007). "Pharmaceuticals, General Survey". Ullmann's Encyclopedia of Industrial Chemistry. Wiley. doi:10.1002/14356007.a19_273.pub2. ISBN 978-3527306732.
  2. ^ Bozenhardt, Erich H.; Bozenhardt, Herman F. (18 October 2018). "Are You Asking Too Much From Your Filler?". Pharmaceutical Online (Guest column). VertMarkets. Archived from the original on 17 November 2020. Retrieved 30 October 2018. The core mission of the pharmaceutical industry is to manufacture products for patients to cure them, vaccinate them, or alleviate a symptom, often by manufacturing a liquid injectable or an oral solid, among other therapies.
  3. ^ Markets, Research and (31 March 2021). "Global Pharmaceuticals Market Report 2021: Market is Expected to Grow from $1228.45 Billion in 2020 to $1250.24 Billion in 2021 - Long-term Forecast to 2025 & 2030". GlobeNewswire News Room (Press release). Archived from the original on 29 November 2021. Retrieved 29 November 2021.
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference emergence was invoked but never defined (see the help page).