Pharmaceutical Financial Analysts

Executive Summary

Biennial survey of investment community by Opinion Research Corp. of Princeton, N.J. indicates that financial analysts are having to cover more companies as size of health care industry grows. Opinion Research Senior VP Henry Dursin told a conference May 7 in Boston that the average number of companies followed by an analyst in the health care field is now up to 45 from 33 in 1979 and 30 ten years go. The analyst group covering the drug industry is showing more experience with the industry -- more than a third of the analysts surveyed had been following the industry for 10 years-plus. The average length covering the industry was 8 years.