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Pricing strategies in pharmaceutical marketing

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 The Pharma Innovation Journal 2014; 3(7): 13-17

ISSN: 2277- 7695

TPI 2014; 3(7): 13-17 Pricing strategies in pharmaceutical marketing
2013 TPI
www.thepharmajournal.com
Received: 24-08-2014 Imamuddin Khoso, Rizwan Raheem Ahmed, Jamshaid Ahmed
Accepted: 28-08-2014

Imamuddin Khoso ABSTRACT

Assistant Professor Pharmaceutical products can be classified under two main categories: Prescription products and OTC
Institute of Business Administration products. The criterion for division is whether a product is marketed to the medical profession or directly
Sindh University, Pakistan to the consumers. Price is one of the most interesting and controversial topics in pharmaceutical
marketing. The responsibility of allowing a particular price lays with the regulatory bodies, as in case of
Rizwan Raheem Ahmed Pakistan, The Ministry of Health. In view of the peculiar characteristics of pharmaceutical industry, the
Professor Department of Business different approaches actually applicable and practiced in the industry as Cost-Plus Pricing, Break-Even
Administration & Commerce Pricing, Value Based Pricing, Competition Based Pricing, & Economy Pricing. This attempt made to
Indus University, Pakistan come up with possible pricing approaches and strategies for pharmaceutical products. The amount of
money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers exchange for the
Jamshaid Ahmed
benefits of having or using the product or service. Internal factors affecting pricing include the
Assistant Professor
Department of Business
companys marketing objectives, marketing mix strategy, costs, and organizational considerations.
Administration External factors that affect pricing decisions include the nature of the market and demand, competition,
COMSATS, Pakistan and other environmental elements. Besides that, a company may amortize its R&D cost over a period of
time, which becomes an additional cost component. Generally, a 60% and above gross margin is
considered to be reasonably good in pharmaceutical industry. However, in case of a new research
molecule, the margin may be as high as 500-1000%.

Keywords: Prescription Products; OTC Products; Pricing Strategies; R&D Cost; Cost-Plus Pricing;
Break-even Pricing; Value Based Pricing

1. Introduction
1.1 Background of the Research
Marketing is, as in other industries is the driving force in pharmaceutical industry. Most of the
people engaged in marketing activities in pharmaceutical industry are business graduates, with
majors in marketing. However, the biggest problem they face, and which in turn becomes a
challenge for human resource function of the company is the distinct character of
pharmaceutical marketing. What these business graduates learn at schools do not encompass
these unique characteristics and as a result, they find themselves inadequately equipped to
handle the dynamics of pharmaceutical marketing [1].
The controls maintained by regulatory bodies leaves very little room for maneuvering and
even lesser for making an error. Therefore, the Pharmaceutical Companies cannot manipulate
Pricing in any way; so, there was a need to develop a clear literature for the pricing issues in
Pharmaceutical Products [2]. This research review is an attempt to elaborate the pricing
strategies in Pharmaceutical Industry in Pakistan.

1.2 Objective & Scope of the Research

To adapt the general marketing text by incorporating the unique characteristics of
pharmaceutical marketing.
In view of the limited time and scope of this study, the focus will be the price and Pricing
strategies for Pharmaceutical Products.
This study covers the Pricing consideration and approaches. An attempt shall be made to
come up with possible pricing approaches and strategies for pharmaceutical products.
Correspondence
Rizwan Raheem Ahmed
1.3 Definition of Price
Department of Business
Administration & Commerce The amount of money charged for a product or service, or the sum of the values that
Indus University, Pakistan consumers exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or service [3].

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1.4 Factors to Consider When Setting Price reduced price.

i) Internal Factors Affecting Pricing Decision
Internal factors affecting pricing include the companys 1.8 Price-Adjustment Strategies
marketing objectives, marketing mix strategy, costs, and i) Discount and Allowance Pricing
organizational considerations. Cash Discount: A price reduction to buyers who pay their
bills promptly.
ii) External Factors Affecting Pricing Decision Quantity Discount: A price reduction to buyers who buy
External factors that affect pricing decisions include the large volumes.
nature of the market and demand, competition, and other
environmental elements [4]. ii) Segmented Pricing
Selling a product or service at two or more prices, where the
1.5 General Pricing Approaches difference in prices is not based on differences in costs [7].
i) Cost-plus Pricing
Adding a standard markup to the cost of the product. iii) Psychological Pricing
A pricing approach that considers the psychology of prices
ii) Break-even Pricing (target profit pricing) and not simply the economics; the price is used to say
Setting price to break even on the costs of making and something about the product.
marketing a product, or setting price to make a target profit.
iv) Reference Prices
iii) Value-based Pricing Prices that buyers carry in their minds and refer to when they
Setting price based on buyers perceptions of value rather look at a given product.
than on the sellers cost.
v) Promotional Pricing
iv) Value Pricing Temporarily pricing products below the list price, and
Offering just the right combination of quality and good sometimes even below cost, to increase short-run sales [8].
service at a fair price.
2. Discussion
v) Competition-based Pricing Price is one of the most interesting and controversial topics
Setting prices based on the price that competitors charge for in pharmaceutical marketing. The responsibility of allowing
similar products. a particular price lays with the regulatory bodies, as in case
of Pakistan, The Ministry of Health. The objective of
1.6 New-Product Pricing Strategies regulatory bodies is two pronged; they have to on one hand
i) Market-skimming Pricing ensure the protection of patients rights and provision of
Setting a high price for a new product to skin maximum quality healthcare of masses, and on the other hand to allow
revenues layer by layer from the segments willing to pay the companies to make reasonable profit so that they keep
high price; the company makes fewer but more profitable manufacturing the medicines needed for the people.
sales [5]. The process of pricing at the company level goes through the
same steps as it goes in case of any other product, but the
ii) Market-penetration Pricing matter becomes totally different when an application is
Setting a low price for a new product in order to attract a lodged with the regulatory bodies for allowing a price [9].
large number of buyers and a large market share.
2.1 Cost Structure in Pharmaceutical Products
1.7 Product Mix Pricing Strategies i) Cost of active ingredient
i) Product Line Pricing Usually the highest cost component. In most of the cases, it
Setting the price steps between various products in a product ranges between 10-30% of total cost of product.
line based on cost differences between the products,
customer evaluations of different features, and competitors ii) Cost of other ingredients
prices [6]. A minor element, usually not higher than 3% of total cost.

ii) Optional-products Pricing

The pricing of optional or accessory products along with a iii) Cost of packaging material
main product. Varies according to a material being used. In absolute terms,
cost of packaging material ranges between Rs. 5-10 per pack
iii) Captive-product Pricing of 10 tablets/capsules, per 60 ml bottle of liquid, per 5 ml
Setting a price for products that must be used along with a injection & per 50 grams tube of ointments [10].
main product, such as blades for a razor and film for a
camera. iv) Cost of manufacturing
Depends on volume being manufactured in a factory.
iv) By-product Pricing Besides that, a company may amortize its R&D cost over a
Setting a price for by-products in order to make the main period of time, which becomes an additional cost
products price more competitive. component. Generally, a 60% and above gross margin is
considered to be reasonably good in pharmaceutical industry.
v) Product bundle Pricing However, in case of a new research molecule, the margin
Combining several products and offering the bundle at a may be as high as 500-1000% [11].
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2.2 Pricing Structure in Pharmaceutical Products 2.7 Competition Based Pricing

Assuming a retail price of Rs. 100/-, following will be the This is what most marketing oriented companies attempt to
price structure: do these days. They take into account not only the perceived
value, but also the value being offered by competition, and
Retail Price: 100.00 then arrive at a reasonable price giving them good margin as
Less: Retailers margin@15% 15.00 well as keeping them competitive in the long run. It is
extremely important not only to take into account current
Trade Price: 85.00 competitors, but also expected competitors, which come with
Less: Distributors margin@10% 8.50 a much lower price and snatch the market share [17].

Ex-Factory Price 76.50 2.8 Special Topics in Pharmaceutical Pricing

There is another pricing strategy practiced in pharmaceutical
2.3 General Pricing Approaches market, which can be termed as Economy Pricing. The
In view of the peculiar characteristics of pharmaceutical concept is close to cost plus pricing, but the perspective is
industry, we will try to discuss the different approaches different:
actually applicable and practiced in the industry. Although,
the approaches are same as in case of any other product, but i) Economy Pricing
the reasons and implications are different [12]. There are some companies, which focus only on offering
brands of established molecules at the lowest possible price.
2.4 Cost-Plus Pricing They base their price on cost, and keep the margins to bare
The cost structure given in section 4.1 forms the basis of this minimum. The reason this is being discussed separately is
type of pricing. The required profit margin is added to the that the molecules selected have no impact whatsoever on
cost of the product to arrive at the Ex-factory price, and then the pricing strategy. They may even pick up a molecule
Trade Price and Market Retail Price. This type of pricing is where there is just one leading brand, and price theirs at
usually done for old molecules where market is very 75% lower price. Zafa Pharmaceutical is a typical example
crowded, and a higher price cannot fetch the required market of such strategy in Pakistan. The company has over 150
share. The objective of company in such scenario is to either brands and all are invariably lower in price as compared to
get some additional volume for their manufacturing facility, any other company [18].
or to complement their existing product range [13].
ii) Price Determination by Regulatory Authorities
2.5 Break-Even Pricing It would be interesting to assess how the Ministry of Health
Normally adopted for products being manufactured for decides upon the price. What they do is that they ask for the
government tenders and institutional business. The concern cost structure from the first applicant of any molecule, which
is not profit, but again either to get volumes, or to get into is in 99% of cases a multinational company, which provides
large hospital pharmacies so that the positive impact may a highly inflated cost due to the element of transfer pricing.
come from out-of-hospital practice of the doctors who have On the basis of this cost structure, the price is determined.
to prescribe their brand in hospital because of inclusion in The next applicant gets approximately 25-40% lower price,
pharmacy. Normally, this type of pricing policies are never and this then becomes the reference price for all following
adopted for research based high profile molecules, so that applicants. Since the price allowed to MNC was inflated, all
there may not be a negative impact on their high in-market local companies get sufficient margins even at 40% lower
price [14]. price than the leader. It is just mind-boggling to see such
approach, as it can be very simple for government officials
2.6 Value Based Pricing to verify costing from neutral source and find out a
This approach for pricing is most commonly used by reasonable price. However, as of today, this is status of
Multinational companies, en-cashing their good rapport with pricing by regulatory authorities in Pakistan [19, 20].
the doctors, especially in case of new molecules. There are
countless examples where the cost of product has no 2.9 What is transfer pricing?
relevance whatsoever and company has priced a product as Unlike consumer products, services and consumer durables,
per the perceived value for the doctors in their opinion. pharmaceutical companies are not allowed to use the mass
However, things are becoming difficult now, and companies media for advertising their products. This closes a very
must be very careful while adopting this approach. They important expense center for them, which is traditionally
have to not only be careful about the wrong judgment of used by all other industries to reduce their profits and show a
perceived value that they may make, and also the possibility higher cost in order to evade taxes and paying dividends to
of launch of same molecule by a local company with good the shareholders. Besides this, there is a strict code of ethics
reputation and quality. During the last few years, MNCs applicable which refrains them from spending beyond a
have for the first time starting to experience this onslaught certain limit on promoting their products [21, 22, 23].
by good local companies and now they realize that they In this situation, the only area available for manipulation of
cannot have their own way about pricing the product. cost is the actual cost of product. Companies aim to make the
Since China & India have emerged as major producers of cost appear as high as possible by buying the raw material at
bulk drugs, the prices of raw material have calm down an inflated price, in most of the cases from their own parent
drastically, and so the pressure has increased on MNCs due companies. This phenomenon is termed as transfer pricing,
to launch of low-priced brands of same molecules by local the reasons for which will be discussed the following section
companies [15, 16]. [24, 25]
.

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The Pharma Innovation Journal

2.10 Why MNCs indulge into transfer pricing? In the example cited above, the company may decide to buy
As the first step, we need to understand a little about the the raw material from the parent company at the rate of US$
costing and pricing structure of the industry. The cost 10,000 instead of US$ 100. See how this will change the
structure in pharmaceutical industry goes somewhat as whole cost structure:
follows:
Cost of Active Raw Material (Drug itself)+Cost of 72.00 - Cost of Active Raw Material (Drug itself)+
excipients (Material used to give the medicine a particular 1.00 - Cost of excipients (Material used to give the
form like tablets, syrups etc.)+Applicable duties on import of medicine a particular form like tablets, syrups etc)
material (Approximately 20% all inclusive)+Cost of labor +
and other overheads+Packaging Material= In-Factory Cost 5.00 - Cost of labor and other overheads +
of Product [26]. 5.00 - Packaging Material =
In the whole of the above structure, all heads except for raw 83.00 - In-Factory Cost of Product
material are almost consistent for all products, and do not 32% - Gross Margin
allow much room for manipulation. Raw material, however
form the basic chunk of the cost structure, and this is where
there is much room for engineering. Now we come to what is The gross margin shown above can easily be consumed
transfer pricing [27]? We will explain this with the help of an through marketing and selling expenditure leaving nothing to
example: account for at the end of the year. The key to understand is
that the duty is 20%, whereas the corporate taxation comes
Example to 50%. This way, even after paying the duty, the company
Suppose the Retail Price of a product is Rs. 150 for a pack of saves around 30% of its profits and transfers the foreign
10 tablets, each containing 10 mg of active drug. The ex- exchange out of Pakistan and that too, officially [33].
factory price for the product will be calculated as per the
following formula: 2.11 What is the impact on the economy?
Informed sources claim, that the multinational
Retail Price (Less) 15% Retailers Margin (Less) 10% pharmaceutical companies cause a loss of a staggering 4-5
Distributors Margin billion per year to the national exchequer. The situation
In the above example, it will come to 150-15-13.5=121.50 appears graver when we realize that we are talking of just
one industry, whereas most of the industries operating in
This means that the manufacturer will get Rs. 121.50 for Pakistan import their raw material from abroad. The issue
each pack. This will be termed as the ex-factory price of the becomes further complicated when we consider the import of
product. Now assume that the cost of Raw material in the finished products by corporate giants like Unilevers and
international market is US$ 100/kg. If we take US$ 1= Pak P&G [34].
Rs. 60, the cost will come to Rs. 6,000 per kg. Add 10% duty Besides this, the amount we lose by tax evasion is also huge.
to it and the landed cost for each kilogram of raw material The prices at which MNCs sell their products will leave
will be Rs. 7,200. As we mentioned above, each tablet them with at least 20% net profit. Pharmaceutical industry in
contains 10 mg of raw material. The raw material consumer Pakistan has a total estimated value of Rs. 45 billion, out of
per pack will be 100 mg, the cost of which will be 0.72. If which 50% is MNCs share. In this scenario, we also lose
we now put this figure in the cost structure given above, and around Rs. 2.25 billion in taxes. Another disadvantage we
take approximate costs of the remaining items, we can arrive get is that MNCs get approval for a very high price based on
at the total cost of each pack [28, 29]. the cost structure they present with their applications. This
makes the cost of healthcare very high for the common men.
0.72 - Cost of Active Raw Material (Drug itself)+ Local companies also get a price which even being lower
1.00 - Cost of excipients (Material used to give the than MNCs, still give them extra-ordinary profits. In whole
medicine a particular form like tablets, syrups of this corporate hanky panky, consumer is the loser. Last
etc.) + but not the least, as a result of transfer pricing the country
5.00 - Cost of labor and other overheads + has to bear additional pressure in terms of balance of
5.00 - Packaging Material = payments [35].
11.72 - In-Factory Cost of Product
3. Conclusion
If we take the above costs against the ex-factory price of Rs. In view of the peculiar characteristics of pharmaceutical
121.50 as calculated above, the profit margin comes to 90% industry, the different approaches actually applicable and
[30]. practiced in the industry as Cost-Plus Pricing, Break-Even
The profit margin coming in the above example will make Pricing, Value Based Pricing, Competition Based Pricing, &
the firm liable to pay a handsome tax to the government, a Economy Pricing. The controls maintained by regulatory
reasonable dividend/return to the shareholders (in case of a bodies leaves very little room for maneuvering and even
public company), and finally bank charges to transfer the lesser for making an error. In view of the limited time and
retained earnings to their parent company. All of these are scope of this study, the focus will be the price and Pricing
the things, which MNCs do not want to incur. They want strategies for Pharmaceutical Products. This study covers the
their local profitability to be as less as possible, in fact Pricing consideration and approaches. This attempt made to
negative to make sure that they do not pay taxes. They also come up with possible pricing approaches and strategies for
want their profits to be transferred in advance as foreign pharmaceutical products. The amount of money charged for
exchange to their parent company. These objectives are a product or service, or the sum of the values that consumers
achieved through transfer pricing [31, 32]. exchange for the benefits of having or using the product or
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The Pharma Innovation Journal

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