PHILADELPHIA and LONDON, March 11 /PRNewswire/ --

- Unique Survey Shows Much Room for Originator Pharmaceutical Companies to Improve Their Understanding of Generic Competition

The Healthcare and Science business of Thomson Reuters today released the white paper, The Five Myths of Generic Competition, highlighting what originator pharmaceutical and biotech companies can do to improve their forecasting of the likely timing, source and intensity of competition from generic drugs.

The findings in this white paper are based on an independent survey of commercial professionals in pharmaceutical and biotech companies. The research was conducted by Thomson Reuters during May and June 2008.

The survey highlights a number of prevailing attitudes among commercial professionals, including:

- Commercial professionals believe that little can be done to prevent sales erosion by generic drugs. - Commercial professionals feel that originator companies have little time or resources to devote to understanding generic competition. - Most executives surveyed assume that such research is already being conducted by someone else in their organization.

The intelligence gathered and analyzed by our researchers tells us that these attitudes are based on some false assumptions, says Claude Basset, VP Specialty Markets, Thomson Reuters. Understanding and forecasting generic competition remains undoubtedly a serious strategic challenge for anyone with a brand product on the market. It's clear, however, that there is more originators could do better - and earlier - to prepare for generic competition.

In analyzing the study findings, Thomson Reuters offers guidance on when and how best to improve competitive intelligence processes by focusing on more effective sources of long-range signals, and by providing brand teams with the resources and tools necessary to better understand generic competition.

To learn more about how companies can improve their understanding and forecasting of generic competition, click here to read the full report: http://thomsonreuters.com/content/PDF/scientific/pharma/generic_myths.pdf

The Five Myths of Generic Competition is part of Pharma Matters, a quarterly report series from Thomson Reuters that covers all aspects of the pharmaceutical pipeline, leveraging strategic intelligence and competitive analysis from Newport Vision Premium(TM), Thomson Pharma(R), and the Thomson Messaging Mapping System(SM).

To sign up for the Thomson Reuters Pharma Matters series of publications visit: http://scientific.thomsonreuters.com/info/matters/

About Thomson Reuters

Thomson Reuters is the world's leading source of intelligent information for businesses and professionals. We combine industry expertise with innovative technology to deliver critical information to leading decision makers in the financial, legal, tax and accounting, scientific, healthcare and media markets, powered by the world's most trusted news organization. With headquarters in New York and major operations in London and Eagan, Minnesota, Thomson Reuters employs more than 50,000 people in 93 countries. For more information, go to thomsonreuters.com.

Sue Besaw of Healthcare and Science of Thomson Reuters, +1-215-823-1840, susan.besaw@thomsonreuters.com