As the head of your own Pharmaceutical Conglomerate you have this power resting in your hands. Will you use it for good? Being totally altruistic may not be the best business plan. The uncomfortable truth (is there an ointment for that?) is that some remedies are more profitable than others and illness is good for business.

Big Pharma is part business sim, part logistics puzzle. It's one thing to work away in the lab perfecting new formulas, but converting the 'sciency stuff' into cold hard cash means bringing an engineering and business mind to the problem. Factory space is expensive, and those fancy new agglomerators and centrifuges don't always slot nicely together.

From humble beginnings with a few rusty reconditioned machines, you can progress from knocking out cheap generic treatments for minor ailments, to discovering new active ingredients and hi-tech machines to help refine the next generation of world-changing drugs.

But watch out! you're not alone out there. Rival corporations that want to put you out of business have their own set of competing cures and treatments. Then there's the dynamically shifting marketplace which means that your fancy cold and flu medicine from last winter might not sell so well now it's the height of summer. Where did I put my antiwrinkle sun cream?