In the broadest sense, the Pharmaceutical Industry comprises various different business models which cover all or only some parts of the pharmaceutical product life cycle. Traditionally, the pharmaceutical industry segment was constituted by research-based pharmaceutical companies which had an integrated business model from the research laboratory to distribution, meaning they developed, manufa...

Most of today's major pharmaceutical companies were founded in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Key discoveries of the 1920s and 1930s, such as insulin and penicillin, became mass-manufactured and distributed. Global pharmaceutical market is highly dynamic and is characterized by greater levels of R&D expenditure and extensive regulation of its products. Global pharmaceutical sales are e...