Today's pharma leaders are less experienced in other sectors, but does it matter?

The pharmaceutical industry’s use of directors from outside the sector has fallen from 40% to 26% in the last five years, research from executive search firm DHR International shows.

These findings, based on the main boards of UK-listed pharmaceutical companies from 2010 to 2015, raise the question of whether firms have the right blend of skills at the highest level, and when one considers findings on the number of executive directors in the industry with experience outside pharma, biotech or banking, they are even more startling.

In 2010, some 28% had experience outside those areas, but in 2015, this had dropped to just 15%.