The price of pharmaceutical drugs has been an issue of national debate for decades. As many blockbuster drugs face patent expiration in a few years (or have already), manufacturing of generic versions of drugs should help to alleviate the rising cost of healthcare. Pharmaceutical companies have been trying to delay the end of valuable patents, but they have been forced into looking into other solutions to develop new drugs more effectively and therefore file new patents more reliably.

Our new infographic looks at how generics compare to brand name drugs losing patent in 2012, as well as how generics have affected the health care market the past few years. Clearly a new solution for drug discovery will be key to the survival of pharmaceuticals in the future, a solution that we hope research exchanges can provide.