It seemed like a match made in heaven. A few years ago, as the patent cliff neared and drugmakers were looking for new sources of revenue, market researchers were toting up growth prospects around the world. The answer, for both, was emerging markets. Drug spending would more or less stagnate in mature markets such as the United States and the European Union. But in the developing world, drug spending was just taking off.

Like miners rushing to California in the 1880s, drugmakers raced to capture their share of those markets. While cutting costs, shuttering facilities and laying off thousands in the U.S. and EU, pharma companies hired on in China, India, Mexico--to the point where laid-off sales reps joked about moving to Asia to find a pharma job. Read the full report >>

A year ago, FiercePharma published a list of drugs that missed when stepping on the up escalator. A heel got caught, or a sleeve. Bystanders hit the emergency stop button. For whatever reason, escalate they did not. We called it "Top 10 Drug Launch Disasters." It's still one of our most popular special reports. This year, we wanted to take a more positive approach.

So, herewith we bring you our Top 15 Drug Launch Superstars. Some of them will be obvious to anyone who follows the pharma business. They certainly were obvious to us. But choosing the rest was a challenge--one we weren't exactly expecting, based on previous experience.

Check out the report >>