Global Pharmaceutical Industry

Federal University of Goiás, 2023

This study investigates how the pharmaceutical sector has become one of the largest and most influential economic sectors of our time. It presents figures and information that support this claim and aims to elucidate the factors that contributed to such a rise. Since Alexander Fleming's discovery of penicillin in 1928, pharmaceutical industries have evolved from small entities - often family-owned and operating locally - to multinational corporations valued at hundreds of billions of dollars with global influence. However, beyond the discovery and diversification of drugs, increased demand, and expansion of production capacity, part of this evolution is underpinned by complex, and in some cases perverse, strategies prioritizing profit maximization over public and individual health. The findings of this study reveal that, over the past two decades, the sector's revenues have quadrupled, reaching $1.48 trillion in 2022, an amount comparable to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) of developed countries such as Spain. The twenty largest companies in the sector have a combined market value of $3.5 trillion and assets totaling $1.86 trillion, generating annual revenues of $820 billion and profits of $181.6 billion. For context, the assets of these companies alone are comparable to the GDP of all Sub-Saharan African countries. Companies, like Johnson & Johnson, have a market value exceeding the GDP of 184 nations. The study also examines and discusses questionable practices adopted by the pharmaceutical industry, including investing billions in lobbying and election financing, influencing regulatory agencies, financially supporting patient organizations, sponsoring authors of "Clinical Guidelines", manipulating and concealing drug research and tests, and directing massive investments to strengthen ties with prescribers, university hospitals, and academic institutions. Concrete examples of these actions are provided, backed by studies, data surveys, and court decisions, underscoring the alarming consequences of this reality. Lastly, the research analyzes pharmaceutical marketing as a primary sales boost strategy. Despite drugs not being ordinary commodities, susceptible to promotion under the lens of rampant consumption, companies invest billions annually in direct-to-consumer advertising. In the Brazilian context, the pharmaceutical sector stands out as one of the main investors in marketing. In recent years, several companies in the field have ranked among the highest individual advertising spenders. The emergence of digital marketing strategies driven by the internet, advanced algorithms, and social networks, combined with advertising campaigns harmful to public and collective health, underscore a concerning and challenging scenario.

Health spending accounted for 9.3% of GDP on average across OECD countries in 2011. The Pharmaceutical expenditure, as a percentage of total expenditure on health, accounted for 15%. The pharmaceutical sector is highly regulated. On describe the major characteristics of the world pharmaceutical industry as one increased globalization, changing structure of competition and increased competitiveness. This are growing pressures on discovery and development. Drug liabilities become more frequent and more costly. The pharmaceutical industry is under immense pressure by external and internal stakeholders. Government and National Health Services are monopsonic practices. Pharmaceutical companies are criticised for high prices, over-intensive sales and marketing activities, presents to medical doctors, clinical trials and industry – government alliances. Lawyers, medical journals, physicians, politicians, and the media use product liabilities and marketing activities to denounce pharmaceutical companies as culprits. The pharmaceutical sector needs to demonstrate responsibility and take steps to increase awareness. Transparency would increase the credibility of the pharmaceutical industry. Corporate governance will prevent corruption by being in compliance with the legislation and establishing their own internal policies designed to prevent corruption. All firms will act more responsibly. In order to rebuild the trust the industry needs to work together and quickly.

Materia Socio Medica , 2013

Introduction: The U.S. pharmaceutical industry is defined by the U.S. Census Bureau as "companies engaged in researching, developing, manufacturing and marketing of medicines and biological for human or veterinary use". Besides its main role in improving human health, the US pharmaceutical industry represents one of the most critical, key decision makers' lobbying prone and competitive sectors in the economy. The cost in the environment of very limited government price regulation remains one of the major problems fuelling aggregate health care cost inflation. Pharmaceuticals have created huge benefits for public health and economic productivity by the means of saving lives, increasing life expectancy, reducing illness related suffering, preventing surgeries and decreasing hospital stays. Purpose: The goal of this review paper is to show the present conditions and future trends of the pharmaceutical industry in the U.S. Methodology: This paper represents a thorough literature review of the multifaceted sources including: studies, books, peer reviewed journals, U.S. government sources (i.e. U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, etc.). Discussion: In the thirty years pharmaceutical companies have consistently developed and launched new medicines, bringing hope

Mediterranean Journal of Social Sciences, 2015

Against the background of certain progress in global health, pharmaceutical industry is becoming a vital mechanism of effective medicines production. At the same time, being a socially-oriented unit of the world economy, the pharmaceutical market at this moment is characterized by particularly high degree of commercialization. Taking this fact into account, the authors aim to search for sufficient answers to the key question-whether pharmaceutical market solves global health problems or exists for the sake of pharmaceutical companies' profits maximizing. According to the results both the fact of uneven distribution of drugs in the context of developed and developing countries and its causes were established. It is supposed that the economical policy of largest pharmaceutical manufacturers is deliberately based on keeping shipments of innovative drugs in developing countries in static regime. The main conclusion of the pharmaceutical market ineffectiveness at the present stage was obtained by a preliminary analysis of data array using IBM SPSS Statistics 19.

Frontiers in Public Health, 2018

Health Affairs, 2009

This product is part of the RAND Corporation reprint series. RAND reprints present previously published journal articles, book chapters, and reports with the permission of the publisher. RAND reprints have been formally reviewed in accordance with the publisher's editorial policy, and are compliant with RAND's rigorous quality assurance standards for quality and objectivity. This PDF document was made available from www.rand.org as a public service of the RAND Corporation. w 1 3 8 1 6 D e c e m b e r 2 0 0 8

What are the trends in the global competitiveness of the Indian pharmaceutical industry? Where does this industry stand when compared to global peers on pharmaceutical value‐added, productivity, research and development and trade performance? What are the new strategies that Indian pharmaceutical companies are adopting to become global players? These questions are addressed in this paper. It is found that strategic government policies were the main factors that transformed the status of the Indian pharmaceutical industry from a mere importer and distributor of drugs and pharmaceuticals to an innovation‐driven cost‐effective producer of quality drugs. India emerged as one of the fast growing pharmaceutical industry in the world with growing trade surpluses and exports. However, there are certain limitations that the government policies need to address, like low productivity and R&D intensity. A host of competitive strategies, like greenfield direct investment, overseas acquisitions, strategic alliances and contract manufacturing have emerged as favourites to Indian pharmaceutical firms recently.

A Companion to Bioethics, 2009

The high price of patented drugs lies at the heart of a major global public health crisis: the global poor are often denied access to lifesaving drugs due to high cost. Do global drug companies owe ethical or legal duties to make their drug patents available for the world's low-and medium-income populations? We suggest that they do, through an exploration of the exceptions surrounding the "duty of rescue" -more precisely, the doctrine in US tort law that does not impose a duty to rescue absent special circumstances such as having contributed to the risk and enjoying special relationships to the endangered person. We find that these special circumstances are surprisingly applicable to global pharmaceutical markets, with both legal and ethical implications for global intellectual property law.

2019

Iran`s pharmaceutical products market has faced fluctuations over time. Suitable market selection is necessary for stability of pharmaceutical exports. This study aimed to determine the structure of the world pharmaceutical market and to identify the target of Iranian pharmaceutical export. T do so, concentration ratios and Herfindahl index were used to address the world pharmaceutical market from 2001 to 2012. Also, a composite index was used to identify the target markets of Iran’s pharmaceutical industry. The results showed that the export side of world pharmaceutical trade has shifted to open oligopoly, thereby decreasing the monopolistic power of exporters. The import side, however, follows monopolistic competition. It has been observed that the structure of Iran’s pharmaceutical export is shifting to open oligopoly; though, pharmaceutical importers from Iran have not been stable. Moreover, 27 countries were identified as target markets. Due to significant differences between t...