Is this the time we all predicted....Transformation of the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Industry?

Is this the time we all predicted....Transformation of the Pharmaceutical Biotechnology Industry?
Can the Services Industry be of help?

It is fairly obvious to those of us who are involved with the Bio-Pharmaceutical Industry that things could not stay as is. The industry is suffering with a multiplicity of challenges including but not limited to:

1.With dry (or near dry) pipelines despite massive spend on R&D.
2.Negative productivity gain from additional sales force additions (interestingly enough this could be a salvation as the industry consolidates and/or continues buying pipelines or licensing deals from biotech companies).
3.Massive governmental pressure on pricing and a hyper-vigilante, highly politically charged FDA making new drug approvals difficult, costly and lengthy.
4.Significant reductions in value for both Pharmaceuticals and to an extent Biotechnology companies that are traded on the stock exchanges.
5.Throw in for good measure that generic drugs now represent somewhere over 60% of all volume of prescriptions while accounting for under 20% of dollar spend and that there is a concurrent consolidation in that business.

Is this not the making of the perfect storm and is it possible that the service providers can help the industry in this regard?

One doesn't need to look much further than the business press to recognize the enormous change taking place, just look at these 5 deals that have taken place or will that are in aggregate way over $100 billion:

1.Roche wanting to buy the remaining share it doesn't own in Genentech
2.BMS bidding to buy what it doesn't own of Imclone
3.Pfizer's multiple Biotech purchases
4.Takeda's takeover for Millenium
5.AstraZeneca's purchase of Medimmune

There are several other interesting consolidations that are taking place within generics as well:

1.Teva of Israel buying IVAX (US) and now Barr (US)
2.Daichii Sankyo of Japan buying Ranbaxy of India
3.Novartis's earlier adding EON Labs (US) and Hexcel (Germany)

My thinking is that we are rapidly seeing consolidations on at least two concurrent fronts-and both are global:

1.Large pharmaceutical companies paying high premiums to acquire a combination of soon to be commercially attractive pipelines and/or complimentary product lines to add to their existing therapeutic areas.
2.Companies of various size forcing a major global consolidation in the generic space. This becomes a most interesting aspect of the equation as more and more drugs go off patent over the next few years and pricing and reimbursement pressures mount.
3.What about the next targets—it's easy to speculate about Amgen, Genzyme, Biogen-Idec and Gilead as the big fish here—but what about those big pharmas such as Merck and ScheringPlough potentially getting together and what that could mean?

Since part of our target audience are service providers to the industry, the question/challenge I pose is-what can you do to help?

As always your comments are welcome at larryrothmansblog@gmail.com