Singapore: A report by Cutting Edge Information titled, 'Post-patent generic and biosimilar defense: Harnessing competitive tactics to mitigate revenue erosion', has revealed that more than half of all pharmaceutical companies and 71 percent of the largest drug companies, maintain a dedicated counter-generics strategy team to oversee product patent expirations.

The study found that these teams plan strategies early in a product's lifecycle and leverage past experience to create new strategies. However, small or new firms do not constantly develop counter-generics strategies, especially if the company does not often face patent expiration.

The study also found that the three most commonly involved departments in counter-generics planning include, market research or competitive intelligence (present at 90 percent of companies surveyed); product and brand management (present at 87 percent of companies surveyed), and business development (present at 81 percent of companies surveyed). Furthermore, the three least common departments include, discovery (52 percent), quality assurance and quality control (55 percent) and clinical development (58 percent).

Among the top 10 pharmaceutical companies that were surveyed, it was found that product and brand management teams are involved in counter-generics efforts in 94 percent of the companies. Also, the least commonly involved departments at these companies are sales and discovery, accrding to 56 percent of the respondents.