Pharma's biggest news stories in 2011
2011 proved to be another busy 12 months for the pharmaceutical industry and as the seasons unfolded a few key themes emerged.
Chief among these were
the austerity-driven reforms and cost-cutting measures across the European market - not to mention the reforms and cost-cutting taking place across pharma.
This was closely followed by a raft of mid-sized and smaller-scale mergers and acquisitions - though the industry has yet to see another 'mega-merger' of two top ten companies, though speculation about the next to join forces surfaces from time to time.
The impact of emerging markets on pharma's business model also continued to gather momentum during 2011,
and of course another area gaining speed were industry moves - now more leaps than steps - off the edge of the 'patent cliff'.