Drug industry earnings growth is unsustainable

Perpetual is negative on the pharmaceuticals sector in Europe in the belief that its historic earnings growth may be unsustainable. John Surplice, European fund manager at the group, says the pharmaceuticals sector has tended to post earnings growth of 17% a year. He says the market consensus is that the sector is on target to achieve that this year but it may fall to 13% in 2001. The sector has also been underperforming the main European market over the past 12 months. The Bloomberg Pharmaceuticals index has seen a rise of 10.39% in euro terms in the 12 months to 19 June compared with a...