Critical evaluation of marketing practices used by the US Pharmaceutical industry Over the last few years drug companies have seldom been far from the front pages. Their large profits and aggressive business first approach has severed them widespread condemnation. They are accused of funding research for profitable western diseases and underfunding research for 3rd world diseases like tuberculosis, malaria and AIDS that cause many more deaths. They are accused of unreasonably pressing patent rights and high prices in poor 3rd world countries devastated by diseases like AIDS Todays drug discovery market is a complex and competitive field. However the global pharmaceutical industry invests billions of dollars in research and development annually. In 2002, global drug discovery spending was estimated at US$19.6 billion.
This number is expected to reach US$25.1 billion by 2006 to ensure the continued development of a healthy therapeutic pipeline, to maintain global market share and of course to develop corporate shareholder investment. Developments within the fields of bioinformatics, imaging technologies, diagnostics, as well as the developing trend towards licensing agreements with smaller biotech firms, are all helping to change the industries practices and shape its future development. The advancements in information management techniques are increasingly responding to the challenge faced in utilizing and processing the wealth of information identified so far as potential leads, with a view to validating therapeutics. It is essential in today’s marketplace, where marketing techniques are ever-changing, to meet marketplace challenges by implementing a corporate-wide marketing excellence program. These programs can raise the global marketing function of pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. Using research gathered from some leading pharmaceutical and biotechnological companies, this presentation explores marketing excellence programs that will help provide consistent training, and help develop brand teams along with a knowledgeable, dynamic marketing staff.
The Term Paper on Marketing and Market Research
The ability to collect information and data about the business environment, markets and customers has been transformed by technological advances. The main research challenge today is to find the best information amongst a large amount of data, rather than finding scarce data, as was the case in the past. Market research is carried out in all areas of marketing activities and the information ...
Nearly all marketing training programs address marketing strategy planning, lifecycle management and market and customer insight development, each being offered by at least 75% of the companies surveyed. To meet marketplace challenges, 87% of the benchmarked companies have implemented a corporate-wide marketing excellence program. Most of these programs are designed to train and develop brand teams and marketing staff to enhance the companies global marketing capabilities. In the 1990s the United States surpassed Europe as the leading site for pharmaceutical research and development. New medicines also help curb overall health care costs by often reducing the need for hospitalization and more other procedures, such as surgery, or by delaying nursing home admission. The products of innovation include hundreds of new medicines that allow patients to live longer and healthier lives. New medications not only help to keep patients out of the hospital and delay nursing home admission, they also provide economic benefits by reducing the need for more expensive treatments and keeping workers on the job.
The Term Paper on Outline And Explain The Marketing Research Process
Marketing research is “the planned and systematic gathering and collation of data and the analysis of information relating to all aspects of marketing and the final consumption of goods or services” -Leader & Krystis. Sometimes a company may want information about its customers, and so will carry out research. The marketing environment is constantly changing and as marketers we ...
The members of many companies are working to make medicines available to patients who cannot afford them is through company-sponsored patient assistance programs (PAPs).
In 2003, an estimated 6.2 million Americans received medicines free of charge through company PAPs. Incentives for Innovation Competitive markets and patents provide incentives for innovation, while price controls stifle access to medicines and innovation. In countries where governments impose price controls on prescription drugs, patients must wait as long as two additional years for medicines to clear the regulatory process and become available to patients. Government-imposed price controls also limited the incentives for research and discovery of new medicines. If price controls were in place in the United States between 1980 and 2001, economists estimate that between 330 and 365 new medicines would not exist today.
Another policy important to supporting innovation is the governments granting of patents. Patents encourage innovation by allowing inventors a limited opportunity to recoup their investments in research and further science by making ideas and discoveries public. It should be outlined that innovations taking place in the laboratories of Americas pharmaceutical research companies and described the importance of maintaining the pace of innovation to patients, their families, and the American economy.
Bibliography:
Lundy, Janet, Benjamin Finder, and Gary Claxton. Trends and Indicators in the Changing Health Care Marketplace. Kaiser Family Foundation.
April 2004. www.brandengineers.com.
