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Drug firms warn of tough 2012

For drugmakers, the golden era of the 1990s and early part of the last decade, when they seemed to effortlessly churn out new multibillion-dollar pills for the masses along with double-digit quarterly profit increases, is not even in the rearview mirror any more. Buzzwords such as “blockbuster’’ and “cash cow’’ have all but disappeared. The new vocabulary stresses “headwinds,’’ ‘’austerity’’ and “efficiency.’’ The “Do More with Less’’ mantra of many industries is basically on steroids in the pharmaceutical business, where most companies have shed 10 percent to 20 percent of their workforce and closed numerous factories and offices or sold them - if they could find a buyer.

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