Biomedical Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
13.7.5
Competitive Strategy Research Questions
Pricing
. The recent publication by UNICEF of prices for individual vaccines
(McNeil
2011
) provides a natural experiment for testing hypotheses (Kyle and
Ridley
2007
) about the impact of price transparency on companies' pricing strate-
gies and other decisions. The contract prices for vaccines published together with
the manufacturers' list prices on the CDC website show great variation in the con-
tract price discounts. What explains the differences in discounts?
Market share dynamics
. Consumers and sales in a product class can be divided into
“static” and “dynamic” components. The dynamic component consists of product
class starters, brand switchers, and existing consumers which add a brand, while the
static component comprises consumers who continue on their current treatment
(Harold and Odqvist
2011
). The greater the dynamic share in a class, the higher the
potential for market share changes. Because most preventive vaccines are adminis-
tered only once or very infrequently over a life time, virtually all sales are to product
class starters (new consumers). Market shares therefore are potentially highly volatile.
Analogous to studies in other markets (Sutton
2007
; Srinivasan and Bass
2000
;
Dekimpe and Hanssens
1995
), marketing scholars could investigate market share
dynamics and explore determinants of market share volatility.
Budget competition
. The fi scal and economic crisis in many countries increases the
need for governments and other payers to make trade-offs between new and older
vaccines, and between vaccines, therapeutics, and other health interventions. Pure
vaccine players can position vaccines against therapeutics, but players with both
types of pharmaceuticals must fi nd ways to ensure that payers are willing to increase
spending for both.
13.7.6
Vaccine Market Data
Searching the “Research and Markets” database with the word “vaccine” results in
over 3,000 results.
42
Publishers of reports generally used by vaccine marketers for
global market evaluation include Datamonitor, Frost & Sullivan, GBI research, and
Kalorama.
IMS Health sales data, which are widely used by therapeutics marketers and
marketing scholars, unfortunately do not provide reliable results for most vaccines.
Sales through wholesale and retail channels, the basis of IMS Health sales data,
capture only part of vaccine sales. A signifi cant other part is shipped directly from
manufacturers to prescribers, or to public purchasers who distribute them to
prescribers (Berndt et al.
2009
). The share of total vaccines sales captured by IMS
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