The Pharmaceutical Industry: Specifi city, Challenges, and What You Can Learn from this Topic - Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry - page 13

they request from their doctors, and where patients stop treatment or choose their
own drug regimen out of their own initiative. While welcomed by some, this
increased role of consumerist patients may be a serious worry for doctors. For
instance, consumerist patients, by not completely adhering to the prescribed ther-
apy, endanger the effi cacy of the treatment. This was already anecdotally illustrated
in the consumerist behavior towards Prozac, with patients going on and off Prozac
at will, often with limited medical guidance. Camacho et al. ( 2012 ) quantitatively
documented that more consumerist patients often do not adhere to therapy. Keeping
therapy adherence on track either by introducing reminder devices or by developing
customer relations management (CRM) processes gets more attention among fi rms.
Moreover the centrality of the patient puts pressure on the typical way in which
pharmaceutical fi rms market their drugs. Firms are used to the physician taking a
prominent role, thus much of their marketing is aligned with the physician. In
today's market, pharmaceutical fi rms need to become substantially more consumer-
centric, and this poses a formidable challenge. Together with consumer empower-
ment comes increased infl uence of the pharmacist. An increasing collection of
over-the-counter (OTC) medication in pharmacies makes the pharmacy more of a
retailer, with similar factors of importance as in grocery retailing. Moreover the
pressure towards generic prescription gives the pharmacist more power over which
manufacturer's drugs get dispensed.

1.3 Overview of the Chapters

The topic provides state-of-the-art reviews of various relevant themes written by
experts in the fi eld. These reviews cover the topics from different perspectives: ana-
lytical/empirical models, behavioral research, case studies, and more, making the
materials accessible to a wide range of audiences. Given the rapid changes the phar-
maceutical industry is experiencing, all chapters conclude with suggested areas for
further research. The topic is organized along the following three aspects: innova-
tion and the product life cycle of pharmaceuticals, patient and physician behavior,
and marketing of pharmaceuticals.

1.3.1 Innovation and the Product Life Cycle

The chapter by Petrova provides a comprehensive overview of the drug innovation
process. The chapter reviews various mechanisms of intellectual property protec-
tion pertinent to the pharmaceutical industry. It addresses issues related to me-too
and follow-on drugs, to the fundamental types of organizations that operate in the
industry, as well as issues related to the modes of collaboration that have emerged
in drug innovation, with a particular focus on alliances.