As long as we focus on what giants are doing and catching up with, we can depict the ups and downs of the pharmaceutical industry as a barometer.

In the past year, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world in terms of pharmaceutical business revenue in 2022 have cut over 50 pipelines. In the first quarter of this year, the trend of pipeline cutting continued.

Biotech is cutting pipelines and laying off employees in order to survive, and these multinational pharmaceutical companies, who are not short of money, are even more unequivocal in their actions.

Or due to immature technology, difficulty in developing drugs, or changes in competitive landscape or strategic mistakes, of course, the most fundamental reason is still due to changes in the environment, macroeconomic pressure, policy adjustments

Due to their advantages in capital and commercialization, large pharmaceutical companies often adopt a wide network pipeline layout. When they collectively cut pipelines, terminate cooperation, or lay off employees, it may mean that they are determined that the era of high investment for high returns in the past is over.

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The surging wave of cutting pipes and threads

Multinational pharmaceutical companies are streamlining their pipelines and shrinking their frontlines.

With the release of the 2022 annual report, major pharmaceutical companies disclosed changes in their product lines during a conference call with investors. In the past year, the top 10 pharmaceutical companies in the world in terms of pharmaceutical business revenue in 2022 have cut over 50 pipelines.

Overall, most of the pipelines that have been cut off are in the early clinical stage, but there are also pipelines that have been abandoned in the third phase clinical stage. For example, Sanofi suspended the BTK inhibitor tolebutinib in the third phase clinical treatment of multiple sclerosis and myasthenia gravis, and Abbreville, Johnson&Johnson, and Roche also terminated multiple later stage projects, among which Roche and Sanofi suffered significant losses as a result.

For example, Roche. According to the financial report, its asset impairment exceeded $31 in 2022, involving 12 major products, the largest of which was a $726 million impairment of the anti-cancer drug Gavreto,

In the fourth quarter of last year, Roche conducted a "major clean-up" of its later projects, officially canceling the combination therapy regimen of ipatasertib and abitron, which was in a phase 3 trial for first-line treatment of castration resistant prostate cancer; Three combinations of PD-L1 inhibitors, Tecntrig, failed Alzheimer's disease selection drug gantenerumab, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis drug.

The surging wave of pipeline cutting continues.

In the latest Q1 2023 report, the themes of pharmaceutical companies such as Novartis, Bojian, Takeda, Pfizer, Roche, Pfizer, and AstraZeneca remain to reduce costs and increase efficiency.

After conducting a comprehensive review of research and development projects in the first quarter of 2023, Novartis decided to "eliminate false and retain true" and terminate the development of 10% of non core projects in the pipeline.

Sanofi also reported pipeline adjustments, including the end of the development of BTK inhibitor atuzabrutinib, the cessation of Dupixent's allergic fungal rhinitis and chronic sinusitis without nasal polyps projects, and the reduction of anti TNFa/IL-6 nanoantibodies based on benefit/risk assessments.

Bojian has made significant adjustments to the research and development pipeline, suspending multiple stroke related research and refocusing on gene therapy to advance basic technology research