For several years now, the pharmaceutical industry hasbeen undergoing dramatic change. For the originatorsof innovative products, the costs for the research,development and market introduction of new drugs is constantlyincreasing, while at the same time many well-established activeingredients are losing their patent protection. On the other hand,more and more generic drug producers are now competing ona global scale.And, due to the often limited differentiation of generic products,this puts significant additional pressure on material cost andprocess efficiency. In consequence, structural changes in theindustry take place, such as the outsourcing of research anddevelopment and continuous global consolidation. However,the changing industry is now crucially impacting on the rolepharmaceutical excipients play for both originators andgeneric producers. For originators, innovative excipients openup opportunities to formulate existing active ingredients in noveldosage forms as soon as the drug comes close to the end of itslife cycle.