The US health care environment and the prospects for the pharmaceutical industry

The authors contend that health care remains a high priority in the United States, despite a number of policy efforts to restructure the country's health care system. The authors also believe that the research‐based, multinational pharmaceutical companies in the USA will survive a period of industry‐wide compression and emerge stronger than they are now. These companies will benefit partly from an expanding worldwide market, partly from the overall priority given to health by ageing populations in the industrialised world, and partly from the new wave of technological innovation.