Analyst Ms Jennifer Brice, life sciences global program manager with Frost & Sullivan based in Mountain View, California, comments that within the pharmaceutical industry, specialty pharmaceuticals will likely have the largest impact from healthcare reform. Frost & Sullivan is a global growth consulting company that also provides market research to a wide range of industries, among other offerings.

"Everyone having access to healthcare may result in cutting down costs elsewhere, such as specialty pharmaceuticals, which are very expensive and dependent on payer acceptance. If fewer specialty pharmaceuticals are approved on payer formularies, then we will likely see an increase in revenues from the generic pharmaceuticals market," she says, adding that biosimilars "may be viewed as one alternative to bring down costs; however, even these therapies do not provide huge cost savings".

According to Ms Brice, getting a drug reimbursed will become even more challenging for pharmaceutical companies in the future. "Pharma companies will need to prove even more how their new drugs are better than existing drugs and provide more data from comparative studies," she says. "We are also expecting to see more consolidation in the industry - larger organizations will have more negotiating power with pharma to ultimately drive down cost."

There will be pressure on healthcare professionals to prescribe generics, giving a boost to the generic drug players. In 2011, the US alone had 25 percent share in the $11.5 billion (Rs 63,000 crore) Indian pharma exports. For countries such as India that have a number of generics drug makers, Mr Obama's re-election could well be a good news. What do you think?