The Pharmaceutical Industry
1. Origins and Evolution
The modern pharmaceutical industry is a highly competitive non-assembled1 global industry. Its origins can be traced back to the nascent chemical industry of the late nineteenth century in the
Upper Rhine Valley near Basel, Switzerland when dyestuffs were found to have antiseptic properties. A host of modern pharmaceutical companies all started out as Rhine-based family dyestuff and chemical companies e.g. Hoffman-La Roche, Sandoz, Ciba-Geigy (the product of a merger between Ciba and Geigy), Novartis2 etc. Most are still going strong today3.
Over time many of these chemical companies moved into the production of pharmaceuticals and other synthetic chemicals and they gradually evolved into global players. The introduction and success of penicillin in the early forties and the relative success of other innovative drugs, institutionalized research and development (R&D) efforts in the industry 4. The industry expanded rapidly in the sixties, benefiting from new discoveries and a lax regulatory environment. During this period healthcare spending boomed as global economies prospered.
The industry witnessed major developments in the seventies with the introduction of tighter regulatory controls, especially with the introduction of regulations governing the manufacture of
‘generics’5. The new regulations revoked permanent patents and established fixed periods on patent protection for branded products, a result of which the market for ‘branded generics’6 emerged. 2. Environmental Analysis (PEST)
Technological advancements, tighter regulatory-compliance overheads, rafts of patent expiries and volatile investor confidence have made the modern pharmaceutical industry an increasingly tough and competitive environment. Below is an analysis of the structure of the pharmaceutical industry using the PEST