Globally, the social, demographic and economic context in which the pharmaceutical industry operates is changing dramatically. These changes will generate huge opportunities for Pharma over the next decade. Some of them may be in different therapeutic areas. Even the demand for innovative medicines for old and new conditions alike is growing, not shrinking. But the current pharmaceutical industry business model is both economically unsustainable and operationally incapable of acting quickly enough to produce the types of innovative treatments demanded by global markets.

In order to make the most of these future growth opportunities, the industry must fundamentally change the way it operates. Most Big Pharma companies have traditionally done everything from research and development (R&D) through to commercialisation themselves. But we predict that, by 2020, this model will no longer work for many organisations. If they are to prosper, they will need to improve their R&D productivity, reduce their costs, tap the potential of the emerging economies and switch from Selling medicines to managing outcomes – activities few, if any,companies can accomplish on their own. Even the largest pharmaceutical companies will soon need to step outside their sector and collaborate with other organisations. As a result of which, the pharmaceutical industry all over the world is undergoing increasing amount of concentration, which coincides with the occurrence of a large number of consolidation strategies such as mergers, acquisitions, alliances and partnerships.

CII's 9th International Pharma Summit aims to focus and explore how the industry is collaborating and consolidating for growth and discuss strategies and challenges ahead. Companies need to suitably adapt their business models to capitalise on growing potential and convert these opportunities into success stories.