Pharma Blitz develops and markets new technological products to be used in health care. The development of a new product operates as follows. When a new technology meets the requisite market potential, a new patent is filed. Patents are granted for a period of 12 years starting from the date of filing and expire after that. Once the patent is filed, the new
technology is developed at one of its 3 independent development centers, and is then launched to the market. Each product is developed at only one center, and each center can only develop a single patented technology at a time. Once a center becomes available, it immediately starts working on the next patented technology that is waiting to be developed, if there is any. On average, Pharma Blitz files a new patent every 5 months (with standard deviation of 5 months). The average development process lasts 12 months (with standard deviation of 24 months).
Show your work for each answer.
1) What is the utilization of Pharma Blitz's development centers?
2) After a product is developed and launched to the market, it generates gross margins of US$40 million per year of patent life. After the patent expires, the product generates no gross margins. Calculate the average total gross margins generated by a product launched to the market.