“Pressure points” on pharmaceutical industry executives: what lies ahead?

MORE THAN ONE DECADE OF VIAGRA: WHAT LESSONS CAN BE LEARNED FROM INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS IN THE ERECTILE DYSFUNCTION MARKET?

The general objective of this study is to investigate the erectile dysfunction pharmaceutical market over the past two decades (1990–2010) through patent data analysis. The study of the erectile dysfunction market allows the analysis of the technological trajectory of Viagra® in its several phases, since the launching of a radical innovation, going through the accommodation of incremental innovations and eventually the release of generic versions of that product. This is a descriptive, documentary, longitudinal research that analyses five research hypotheses. The results show how the erectile dysfunction market has developed over the years and the lessons that can be extracted regarding Intellectual Property Rights for countries, companies and governments, including political and social considerations about how much should a patent protect innovation.

Identifying and prioritizing industry-level competitiveness factors: evidence from pharmaceutical market

Background

Pharmaceutical industry is knowledge-intensive and highly globalized, in both developed and developing countries. On the other hand, if companies want to survive, they should be able to compete well in both domestic and international markets. The main purpose of this paper is therefore to develop and prioritize key factors affecting companies’ competitiveness in pharmaceutical industry. Based on an extensive literature review, a valid and reliable questionnaire was designed, which was later filled up by participants from the industry. To prioritize the key factors, we used the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS).

Results

The results revealed that human capital and macro-level policies were two key factors placed at the highest rank in respect of their effects on the competitiveness considering the industry-level in pharmaceutical area.

Conclusion

This study provides fundamental evidence for policymakers and managers in pharma context to enable them formulating better polices to be proactively competitive and responsive to the markets’ needs.