Building regulatory capabilities for pharmaceutical firms' internationalization

Abstract

Purpose

The internationalization of pharmaceutical firms faces major barriers in terms of managing regulatory requirements in various international markets. This paper aims to identify the requirements related to regulations in various markets of the world. It further seeks to identify how the firms develop such capabilities i.e. processes undertaken by the firms to develop regulatory capabilities.

Design/methodology/approach

The research is exploratory in nature. Case study method is adopted to study the requirements related to regulations in international markets and processes to build regulatory capabilities.

Findings

To manage regulatory requirements firms need knowledge related to plant approval and product registration. Firms have to submit dossiers to the respective country's regulatory authority to get plant approval and product registration. They can simultaneously apply for both to save time to enter the target market. The requirements for each market are unique in terms of format and contents for dossier preparation. Dossier preparation needs data from various departments which calls for good coordination among various functional areas, i.e. production, QA and QC, R&D, purchasing, etc. If the firm has operations in multiple markets and offers multiple products in a single market the regulatory function is separately organized for less regulated, semi‐regulated and regulated markets.

Practical implications

Pharmaceutical firms targeting international markets can get insight into the regulatory requirements and the process to be adopted to build regulatory requirements.

Originality/value

The paper shows that firms use a systematic process to build capabilities for managing regulations. The paper also offers a process model for firms to build regulatory capabilities for internationalization.

Citation

Yadav, S. (2013), "Building regulatory capabilities for pharmaceutical firms' internationalization", International Journal of Pharmaceutical and Healthcare Marketing, Vol. 7 No. 1, pp. 58-74. https://doi.org/10.1108/1750612131131