Is change good for you?

With the pharmaceutical industry being in a current state of unrest in light of the recent spate of mergers, acquisitions, job cuts, divestments, patent expiries, and so on, we wanted to know how you felt about all these changes that will have directly or indirectly affected you. So towards the end of last year, we invited visitors to our website to participate in our weekly poll, which revealed some interesting results (www.pharmtech.com/polls).

Fedra Pavlou

When we asked our readers what their feelings were towards the M&As of 2009, an astonishing 56% of you felt that the deals will have an overall negative effect on the dynamics of the 2010 pharma industry. This makes for worrying reading given that a number of market analysts have predicted further M&A activity this year. In fact, more than half of you do not believe that the industry will begin to recover from the aftermath of recession until at least 2011. Please go to "Your predictions for 2010" of this issue to read more about our findings.

Our survey results have indeed been enlightening and have indicated your sense of unease given the changes that have been taking place in the industry. Moving forward, we will continue to seek your opinions on industry trends and issues and we will highlight some of the results in our issues throughout the year. I would like to encourage you to take part in these short, one-question polls; however, if you would like to discuss anything further on any of our surveys, we would be delighted to welcome you into our LinkedIn group (www.pharmtech.com/linkedin). As always, your comments and opinions are important to us so please do join your peers and get involved in our regular polls and forums.

On another note, you may have noticed this month's launch of the latest product to our portfolio: PTE Digital. Created to provide you with a snapshot of a different sector of the pharmaceutical industry each month — covering issues, innovations, techniques and products — it is our aim to provide you with a downloadable, comprehensive digital archive of special industry features. If you do not already receive it, please go to www.pharmtech.com/signup and select the option to sign up to Pharmaceutical Technology Europe Digital Edition.

Thank you and kindest regards,

Fedra Pavlou