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The purpose of this paper is to benchmark current adoption of green chemistry (GC) practices by the innovative and generic pharmaceutical companies and examine the drivers, barriers and future opportunities.

The authors examined publicly available data for the top 10 “big pharma” and top ten generic drug manufacturers. Using the IQ Green Chemistry working group framework for effective GC programs, they scored each of the 20 companies in seven key areas.

The study finds that generic drug companies have not embraced GC at the level of the innovative pharmaceutical companies (average GC score of 2 vs 11 for “big pharma”). Top two barriers for them include: lack of pressure and incentives, and the burdensome regulatory process for making changes in the manufacturing process.

The research is based on publicly disclosed information. It is possible that some generic drug manufacturers have begun to work internally on GC but have not disclosed externally yet. Future research should include a survey or interviews of generic drug manufacturers.

The company-level analysis, benchmarking framework and results are of value for researchers and practitioners interested in advancing greater adoption of GC by the pharmaceutical industry.

This study provides the first company-level benchmarking of GC adoption by the largest innovative and generics drug manufacturers. It contributes to the literature on the barriers and drivers for greater adoption of GC.

The COVID-19 pandemic creates inefficiencies in the health-care system by having devastating consequences. It has demonstrated how inefficiencies in the health system can have a significant impact on social cohesion, economic growth and public confidence in government. The main purpose of this study is to explore the contemporary challenges faced by the pharmaceutical industry in Europe.

This study used a systematic literature review method and adopted inclusion and exclusion criteria after constructive reviews of articles from Web of Science and Scopus databases along with the ranked journals in the Chartered Association of Business Schools to search the following key terms “challenges in the European pharmaceutical industry” during the period from 2011 to 2022. The terms are set to be searched in the publications’ titles, abstracts and keywords.

This study reviewed 57 papers, and the systematic review revealed the vulnerability of the European pharmaceutical industry, such as the default patent system, ineffective research and development, debate on the role of alliances, low level of expertise in the European health-care system, pharmaceutical supply chain management and other issues.

This study suggests that future research may explore the challenges of multisectoral and cross-country perspectives to get a better understanding, and for the long-term sustainability of public pharmaceutical spending, new models of enhancing research investments are needed, and Europe can still play a leading role in its tradition structure within capturing innovative ideas.

It provides new useful insights to policymakers, global leaders and managers to devise policies to achieve a performance-oriented culture in their institutions and firms.

The pharmaceutical sector has recognized the influence of social determinants of health. It moves toward sustained sound health of people to have a flourishing pharmaceutical sector.

There is an insufficient study on the contemporary challenges of the European pharmaceutical industry. This study presents the argument that earlier studies ignored the contemporary issues facing the European pharmaceutical industry from a comprehensive and wider angle. In addition, the COVID-19 pandemic is a recent occurrence, and it causes inefficiency in the health-care sector, where the pharmaceutical industry plays a crucial role; importantly, this topic is emerging and underresearched in the existing literature. There is also a lack of systematic literature review studies in this field.

Pharmaceutical market value in Iran exceeded to more than US$4bn in 2013, indicating annually over 20 per cent growth. In the past decades, Iranian pharmaceutical industry was supported by government policies, namely, generic substitution, import limitation and local production support; however, the local pharmaceutical manufacturer’s market share in value has been decreased gradually. This study aims to provide historical data on Iran pharmaceutical market to show the importance of new product development to attain greater market share and tries to motivate the pharmaceutical industry located in developing countries to develop more innovative medicines.

This is a descriptive cross-sectional study that investigates the Iranian pharmaceutical market by focusing on new products over a five-year period (2009-2014), and that was augmented by an expert panel to rank subjectively firms’ performance indicators to shed light on the importance of new product development to firms’ performance.

The expert panel results find out that new product development is one of the most important “result indicators” for Iranian pharmaceutical companies. Historically, in line with the experts’ opinion on the new product development, the Iranian pharmaceutical industry has shown its capability to develop new medicines by developing 3,095 new products (mostly new-to-firm) across about 100 firms. Despite this fact, the share of local manufacturers in new medicines’ market decreased from 52 per cent at the beginning of studied period to 24 per cent at the end, and the gap between the unit value of imported and domestically produced medicines has been significantly increased due to low-innovative medicines locally produced.

This research was challenged with limitations such as lack of reliable published data on new medicines in the Iran pharmaceutical market.

This study highlights the fact that developing more innovative products in the generic pharmaceutical industry such as Iran can grant its market share.

This is an original study that shows the effect of innovative product development on market share through historical data.

This study aims to document students’ supply chain solutions developed through the internship hackathon program. The study profiled innovative solutions developed by university students in Kenya to solve health supply chain logistics challenges during and beyond COVID-19. This is done by exploring students’ experience in developing sustainable logistics and supply chain management capacity-building programs in a low-middle-income country (LMIC).

This study used a qualitative approach to explore the experiences and perceptions of students and mentors who participated in a hackathon program. The study followed a cross-sectional descriptive survey design, collecting data from the participants through online questionnaires. The data were analyzed and presented using thematic analysis and narrative techniques.

Findings provide preliminary evidence for narrowing the gap between theory and practice through a hackathon internship blended with a mentorship program. Assessment of this program provides evidence for developing solutions toward ensuring the availability of essential medicine in LMICs during a pandemic such as COVID-19 by students. The profiled solutions demonstrate a broader perspective of innovative solutions of university students, mentors and potential opportunities for a triple helix approach to innovation for health supply chain system strengthening.

This original study provides evidence for advancing contribution to developing innovative solutions through partnerships between investors, universities and industry practitioners interested in mentoring students in the health-care supply chain during COVID-19 in LMICs. Specifically, contingency factors that affect the implementation of innovative programs during and beyond global pandemics such as COVID-19 by students’ innovators are identified, and implications for policy action are discussed based on the praxis of sensemaking.

This study examines a novel approach that combines internship, mentorship and hackathon projects for logistics and supply chain students in LMICs. The approach aims to bridge the gap between theory and practice and to create innovative solutions for essential medicines during and after COVID-19. The study urges more resources for supporting such programs, as they benefit both academia and industry. The study also argues that hackathon internship programs can help the logistics and supply chain industry adapt to the post-pandemic era. The study offers insights for investors, universities and practitioners in the health-care industry.

This study shows how to develop innovative solutions for the health-care supply chain during COVID-19 in an LMIC through partnerships between investors, universities and industry practitioners who mentor students. The study identifies the contingency factors that influence the success of such programs during and beyond global pandemics such as COVID-19 and discusses the policy implications based on the sensemaking praxis of the student innovators.

The purpose of this study is to shed light on the importance of innovation and patient centricity to improve the existing pharmaceutical products. In the pharmaceutical industry, defining the “value” or “added value” of medicines is a very complex issue that requires objective information about how they can make people healthier and what “value” means to patients. In light of “value creation” strategy for the existing medicines, many original and generic pharmaceutical companies hope to create new portfolios to enter into new markets, to capture more market share or to strengthen their market position in the existing markets. The fact that “value” and “added value” are not static and change rather rapidly over the time, cannot always facilitate market access for the so-called improved or repurposed/repositioned versions now claiming “added-value” status. The only way “added value” category can promote smarter drug pricing scenarios and access to markets, is focusing on “patient Centricity” while innovating for satisfying their unmet medical needs.

This article is designed and structured by two methodologies: the first one is based on face to face interviews and the second one is focused on literature review regarding the value added pharmaceuticals.

There is an increasing confusion regarding “value-added” pharmaceuticals. This term is mainly used to define improved generic versions. This article discusses the “added-value” of this improvement for patients and manufacturers. By launching such products, these companies attempt to become more “innovative and patient-centric”. Furthermore, adopting a patient-centric strategy as a framework for optimizing the modified pharmaceuticals can create value, new pricing models may emerge through this strategy and can promote the “value” of these products by facilitating their access to higher margins.

Limited to an European discussion around the value-added pharmaceuticals.

The facts about value added medicines. The real classifications of these products.

For patients and health care systems, it is important to trust to real value in pharmaceutical treatments. If their “added value” is not justified by scientific proofs, if it is not patient centric, then they can occupy the status of the next generation of generic medicines a category between innovative and pure generics.

This is an original topic which was never discussed before.

This study aims to draw on the malleable nature of processing fluency to identify the role of consumer expectation in generating diverging effects of metacognitive experiences on perception of product innovativeness and product evaluation. It also examines critical boundary conditions to offer a more sophisticated understanding of the interactive effect of expectation and processing fluency.

Studies 1, 2A and 2B recruited 1,922 online participants, and Studies 3 and 4 recruited 644 college students. The authors manipulated product innovativeness expectation by exposing participants to expert reviews of new products, and processing fluency by presenting product detail in either easy-to-read font/color contrast or difficult-to-read font/color contrast. Subsequently, perceived product innovativeness and product evaluation including actual product adoption were measured.

When a product was expected to be innovative (ordinary), feelings of difficulty with processing its detail increased (decreased) perceived innovativeness and, in turn, interest in purchase. The observation occurred only when a credible external source (vs firms) generated the innovativeness expectation or consumers’ elaboration level was not high. Furthermore, when innovativeness became associated with negative implications, perceived innovativeness no longer enhanced but impaired purchase intention.

Studies used incrementally new products only. Really new products involving a high adoption risk might produce a diverging effect. The findings need to be replicated with higher involvement products. An ideal level of difficulty with comprehending product information was not examined in the present research.

Results carry significant weight for firms who seek to draw consumer attention to their new products by choosing an optimal format of product presentation. The findings suggest that they can proactively administer a proper level of ease/difficulty with comprehending product detail depending on the extent of product innovativeness and target audience.

Extant research has not addressed how the malleable nature of processing fluency systematically affects innovativeness perception and product evaluation. The key contribution of this paper to the metacognition literature is the role of consumer expectation that alters the meaning of metacognitive experiences in relation to innovativeness perception. In addition, this is one of the first to empirically investigate perceptual processing fluency in the elaboration likelihood model theory.

Continuous introduction of advanced health technologies coupled with limited resources force governments to adopt rationing measures in all types of health systems. The mass media can influence the application of these measures by rising people and patients' expectations and demands for new forms of healing. This article intends to find evidence of this influence by reporting two recent cases which occurred in Portugal involving two innovative drugs, one for the treatment of hepatitis C and another for type I spinal muscular atrophy. The new drugs were not publicly funded despite promising excellent overall health outcomes because of their high cost and exaggerated burden on national health system (NHS).

A qualitative research was used to collect information conveyed by the conventional media and social networks.

After a strong dissemination through conventional and social media of the nonapproved treatments, the drugs swiftly garnered support among the public and triggered remarkable and relentless advocacy efforts. The findings of this paper suggest that society opinions and, by extension, the decision of policy-makers are very susceptible to the influence of the mass media.

New ways of sharing information are changing health research and public health.

These stories raise complex tensions and important questions about resource-allocation decisions involving scientific research or innovative medicine. Societal preferences seem very vulnerable to information conveyed by the mass media.

This study is the first attempt to awaken attention to the influence that Portuguese mass media may exercise on future healthcare rationing decisions.

Through the example of a “regulatory ranking” – an index produced with the aim to regulate the pharmaceutical market by pushing companies in the direction of providing greater access to medicine in developing countries – this chapter focuses on indexing and ranking as infrastructural processes which inscribe global problem spaces as unfolding actionable territories for market intervention. It foregrounds the “Indexal thinking” which structures and informs regulatory rankings – their aspiration to align the interests of different stakeholders and to entice competition among the ranked companies. The authors detail the infrastructural work through which such ambitions are enacted, detailing processes of infrastructural layering/collage and patchwork through which analysts naturalize/denaturalize various contested categories in the ranking’s territory. They reflect on the consequences of such attempts at reconfiguring global topologies for the problems these governance initiatives seek to address.

The twentieth century started writing the history of modern health systems. Their evolvable rate is now higher than ever. The Western Europe was the forefront of setting up the national health systems (NHS) to protect citizens and let them thrive. Successful models progressively crossed the borders and experiences became universal. Hence, this chapter tackles data to perceive the underwent radical transformations and capture intricate aspects to envision the next and get answers time ahead the patients‘needs. Health organizational structures and human resources management play crucially in improving system’s performances: managerial qualities, medical entities’ functionality, results’ forecasting are essential to build up credibility and aid strategic patterns to evolve.

Changes are welcome to better tailor performances, assure successful implementation, avoid inadequate, distressing reforms. Stable and consistent policies are also called for.

Grounded on fundamental patterns, open to applicatory innovation, countries follow specific arrangements to resound with healthcare robustness if goals are well-thought-of: keeping people healthy and safe, identifying and treating defectiveness or abnormal physiological functions affecting people, operations, circuits, and preserving health budget wisely balanced.

Activities and citizens are touched by any structural changes maneuvered. To confront them, a keen eye should be addressed to those nobody’s areas into synergistic efforts to cope with internal causes, face external forces and improve life through fair profitability on the way of full satisfaction.

The aim of this paper is to present results of a foresight study on identifying priorities for health-related research and development (R&D) in Russia for the period until 2030.

Research priorities were identified through consistent integrated expert analysis and evaluation of the subject area, i.e. biomedical research preceding development of medical technologies.

Key global and national trends in the biomedical R&D sector and related areas (medicine and health) were identified. According to the experts, the following markets have the best prospects for Russia: regenerative medicine, biodegradable and other biocompatible materials, diagnostic systems, implants, surgical equipment, targeted delivery systems and non-invasive visualisation systems. Entering these markets requires providing support to R&D in the following areas: promising drug candidates, molecular diagnostics, molecular profiling and mechanisms of human diseases, cell technologies (therapies), new materials (biomimetics and other), bioelectronic, bioimaging and biosensors and human genome databases.

Regularly updating research priorities is a necessary prerequisite of successful science and technology development of countries, innovative companies and academic institutions. Allocation of (always limited) financial resources on the basis of such priority-setting exercises’ results is evidence of adherence to scientific planning principles. Combined with monitoring and evaluation tools, priority setting for biomedical R&D must become an integral component of Russia’s innovation policy.

This is a first-ever presentation of Russian experience in setting research priorities for the health-related sphere. Global and national contexts for development of biomedical R&D are described; markets and research areas with the biggest potential for Russian companies are identified.