Business Strategy - Global Pharmaceutical Industry - Essay Example

The global pharmaceutical industry faces significant twists in the twentieth century due to varying changes in the business environment. Holland is right, unmet medical needs, innovation, and globalization are critical driving forces of the industry. This is agreed by various research, studies, and evidence aiming to create an assessment of the global pharmaceutical industry (Bianchi et al., 2011; Shah et al., 2009; Schmid and Smith, 2007). The next point is to evaluate whether these forces are what drive each industry sector.

                        The ethical pharmaceutical companies are broader since their products cover conventional pharmaceuticals, biopharmaceutical agents and vaccines, and over-the-counter medicines. As a result, Holland points out that the key strategic capabilities of these companies are Research and Development and Sales and Marketing. Boone and Kurtz (2006) emphasize that companies which focus on these activities are dynamic at creating a need for their service or product offerings. This implies that the ethical pharmaceutical sector is somewhere between growth and maturity level in the industry life cycle while very particular at meeting unmet medical needs, innovation, and globalization. Production and outsourcing are the other two essential focuses of this sector just to cover a wide range of geographic market coverage (Holland, 2010).

                        The generic manufacturers on the other hand among other concerns are particular with accessing new technologies to reach markets with untapped potential (Holland, 2010). Regarding this, the said sector is invariably looking forward to achieving manufacturing and distribution efficiency. Manufacturing and distribution are broader in context, but they are also associated with growth and development (Kruger, 2006). The generic manufacturer sector is also dynamic as it tries to continually search for markets with untapped potential and is even attentive to patent concerns. Again, companies with this level of thinking cannot just simply skip the need to innovate, create or meet needs, and be influenced by the global business force (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). The sector for generic manufacturers is somewhere between growth and maturity levels in the industry life cycle.   

                        Finally, the sector for small biotechnology start-ups or biotechs like the previous sectors is also concerned with meeting needs, marketing concerns, and above all financial restructuring due to long-product development, so it would take time to realize profitability (Holland, 2010). Distribution of its product to market seems to be the primary concern of this sector. Thus, time is the essential contributing factor to why for instance this sector embraces mergers or acquisitions (Holland, 2010). In the 21st century, this issue is a global concern that drives major businesses, not only to innovate possibilities but gain market share by creating or meeting needs (Boone and Kurtz, 2006). Due to its restructuring activity, this sector is still primarily moving forward to a growth level in the industry life cycle stage.

Conclusion

                        Unmet medical needs, innovation and time to market, and globalization are essential forces that move the different sectors in the pharmaceutical industry. Even though only one of them may be substantially observed within a sector in the said industry, it is clear that the other forces are still implied to be other significant drivers. The clear presence of only innovation for instance may not necessarily mean the absence of meeting unmet medical needs and globalisation. Innovation by itself is in a broad context, which in the 20th century is an integral component of globalization issues and customer value such as a meeting or creating of needs. In other words, the three forces are associated with each other.

Recommendation

                        The article Holland is a significant tool to be used to generate important and basic ideas about the whole picture of the pharmaceutical industry in the 21st century. Considering that the global pharmaceutical industry is broad in its context, the issues about unmet medical needs, innovation and time to market, and globalization could just be sufficient enough to understand the prevailing status of the said global industry. Thus, it is highly recommended that various studies or empirical investigations should be further conducted in line with the issues of unmet medical needs, innovation and time to market, and globalization as essential forces that drive the global pharmaceutical industry.