Index Term—Innovation, blockbuster, credits, princeps, R&D, medicine. I. INTRODUCTION The pharmaceutical industry is a full industry with its own peculiarities. Indeed, it produces consumer goods of a very particular nature since they concern health and therefore life and death of all human beings; on the other hand, the high-tech industry requires increasingly heavy investments spread over a very long term. To this constraint are added governmental plans to drastically reduce healthcare costs, since this industry is closely linked to the social welfare system. In addition, the traditional pharmaceutical industry has faced, for many years, the market competition of generic drugs (cheaper for consumers) and the emergence of supermarkets which can be a threat to the rise of self- medication. The mode of drug consumption is, thus, going to change. As a consequence, the role of pharmaceutical strategic studies is to develop appropriate strategies for at least maintaining growth while taking into consideration the original part of medicines, as well as technological, economic and social changes. Our work, within this frame of reflection, is to analyze the concept of strategy and pharmaceutical innovation in front of more complex environmental issues. From there follows our next problem: What are the challenges facing pharmaceutical innovation, and what is the most appropriate strategy to be adopted to deal with it? To respond to those questions, this work is built on the main contributions in the field of medicine, pharmaceutical strategy and pharmaceutical, and it consists of three parts: the first will cover the global context within which the pharmaceutical industry is trying with great difficulty to adapt itself to, the second will focus on the solutions and the strategy adopted in front of transformations, and the last part will involve practical analysis based on a field survey involving consumers, pharmacists, doctors and medical representatives. II. LITERATURE REVIEW A. Pharmaceutical Innovation and Challenges The pharmaceutical industry is constantly evolving. In fact, the outline of the factors that bring about the rapid mutation of this industry highlights a multitude of factors linked to Blockbusters and patent expiry, inflation budgets for research and development, integration of biotechnology, the existence of strict regulations, development of effective marketing tools and especially to the expansion of the generic medicinal product in front of original medicines (Princeps). B. Blockbusters and Patent Expiration The application of patent laws, which began in the 1980s, has produced its first effects in the early 2000s.Since then, the first patents were due to expire and firms have progressively lost the monopoly rents they had. The collapse of sales was then particularly important for blockbusters [1], those molecules whose turnover exceeds the billion Euros [2]. As shown, the loss of patent protection of Claritine antihistamine Schering -Plough has generated a loss of more than 20 % market share to non-patented competing molecule, Zyrtec Pfizer / UCB and this within one year only [3], (Fig. 1). Thus, the pharmaceutical companies must face a plunge once their molecules patent has expired. This can be even more important and damaging for the society since the molecule represents a significant percentage of its turnover (Fig. 2). Pharmaceutical Innovation Challenges and Strategy (PICS) Amina Berrached and Abderezak Benhabib International Journal of Social Science and Humanity, Vol. 5, No. 9, September 2015 760 DOI: 10.7763/IJSSH.2015.V5.552 Abstract—The pharmaceutical industry is a particular industry which produces consumer goods of a different nature with an infinitely ethical packaging. Actually, the pharmaceutical industry is changing very rapidly. Indeed, the outline of factors behind the rapid transformation of this industry reveals a multitude of factors. Internal factors, which modify the methods of research and development, highly regulated structural factors, as well as a framework that affects strongly the upstream and downstream activity of the pharmaceutical industry. Furthermore, a new field of competition has arisen, for several years, between these latter and the generic pharmaceuticals, less expensive for consumers, creating a sharp decline in the prices of brand ones called Princeps. Adapting the strategy and the organization through new approaches contribute to the emergence of a new model of R & D, more conducive to innovation, in order to preserve the capacity of innovation, which constitutes a supporting pillar of the business model of this industry. This paper intends to identify the overall context in which the pharmaceutical industry tries with great difficulty to adapt itself to it, the solutions and the strategy to be adopted in front of transformations, while the latter part present a practical analysis built on a field survey involving consumers, doctors and medical visitors. Manuscript received May 4, 2014; revised July 14, 2014. Amina Berrached is with the Laboratory of Management Business and Social Capital-Mecas-Tlemcen, Algeria (e-mail: berrached- amina@hotmail.fr). Abderezak Benhabib is with the Mecas Laboratory, Tlemcen, Algeria (e-mail: abenhabib@yahoo.fr).