It can trace its roots to Europe’s apothecaries in the Middle Ages and the 19th-century dye and bulk chemical producers of Germany’s Ruhr valley, but the pharmaceutical sector has become a significant global industry in its own right.
Academic researchers and doctors make most breakthroughs, but the sector has supported the commercialisation of drugs that have contributed to a significant extension in the quality and length of life, with such benefits as higher productivity.
Drugs to reduce cholesterol and hypertension have eased the threat of heart disease. Treatments for asthma, HIV and rheumatoid arthritis have turned debilitating illnesses into more manageable chronic diseases. An effective cure for malaria exists and one for hepatitis C is in sight.