The pharmaceutical industry has been having a bit of a bumpy ride lately. Mergers, layoffs, cost-cutting exercises – it seems we are not immune to the stormy effects of the global financial crisis after all.

The pharmaceutical industry has been having a bit of a bumpy ride lately. Mergers, layoffs, cost-cutting exercises – it seems we are not immune to the stormy effects of the global financial crisis after all.

Or are we? In contrast to their US counterparts, some European companies seem to be doing rather well. Late last year, Novartis said its profit had reached €6.2 billion euros and that sales had increased nine percent. German drug maker Boehringer Ingelheim has invested €1.73 billion in research and development in the last year, and has added 400 new employees. Shire, with headquarters in both the UK and the US, has hired 2500 people in the last three years.

This is no time to be smug, however. No matter how relatively secure we feel in Europe, the pharmaceutical industry is international. We too will face patent expiries and will find ourselves staring the dearth of new blockbusters in the face. It may not be on quite the dramatic scale that we’ve seen in the US, but change is coming, whether we like it or not.

How do you think the industry should respond? By using this time to take bold risks, when there is little to lose? Or by hunkering down and protecting what we’ve got? Either way, as the next few months unfold, it will be interesting to see which companies master the art of staying afloat in the troubled waters of 2009.