SWOT Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry

SWOT Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry

 

v  Anti- Infective

ü  Augmentin

ü  Amoxil

ü  Velosef

ü  Ampiclox

ü  Fortum

v  Analgesics

ü  Calpol

v  Anti – Virals

ü  Zeffix

ü  Hepsera

ü  Valtrex

v  Consumer Health

ü  ENO      

ü  Horlicks

ü  Oral Care

ü  Nutrition

ü  Sensodyen

ü  Panadol

ü  Oral Care

v  Central Nervous system

ü  Seroxat

ü  Requip

ü  Lamictal

ü  Motival

ü  Keppra

v  Respiratory

ü  Seretide

ü  Aeroline

v  Oncology

ü  Tykerb

ü  Taxol

ü  Hycamtin

v  Gastrointestinal

ü  Zantac

ü  Dependal-M

ü  Tagamet

v  Anti Allergy

ü  Avamys

ü  Xyzal

ü  Zyrtec

SWOT Analysis of Pharmaceutical Industry

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John P. Gross

John P. Gross has been writing professionally since 2005. He has created internal and external communications materials for investment firms, accounting firms, nonprofit organizations, universities, production companies and global brands. Gross holds a Bachelor of Science in business administration from the Tepper School of Business at Carnegie Mellon University.

By John P. Gross, eHow Contributor

SWOT analysis looks at a company's attributes, both positive and negative.

A SWOT analysis identifies and assesses the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats an organization faces. A SWOT analysis of the pharmaceutical industry illustrates to upper management what the industry is excelling in, what improvements need to be made, where growth is possible and what preemptive measures need to be taken to protect shareholder or company value.

1.  Strengths

o    The strengths of the pharmaceutical industry’s SWOT analysis document the internal industry components that are providing value, quality goods and services and overall excellence. The internal industry components can include physical resources, human capital or features the industry can control. For example, the pharmaceutical industry’s strengths could include low operating overhead, firm fiscal management, low staff turnover, high return on investment (ROI), state-of-the-art laboratory equipment and an experienced research staff.

Weaknesses

o    The weaknesses of the pharmaceutical industry’s SWOT analysis document the internal industry components that are not providing significant added value or are in need of improvement. The internal industry components can include physical resources, human capital or features the industry can control. For example, the pharmaceutical industry’s weaknesses could include high-risk business modeling, disengaged Board of Directors, dated medical equipment, poor branding, low staff morale or diseconomies of scale.

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Opportunities

o    The opportunities of the pharmaceutical industry’s SWOT analysis document the external industry components that provide a chance for the industry (or factions of the industry) to grow in some capacity or gain a competitive edge. The external industry components should be environmental factors or aspects outside the industry’s control, yet reflective of the business marketplace. For example, the pharmaceutical industry’s opportunities could include recently published research, an increase in health-conscious consumers, increased demand for pharmaceutical products, changes in Food and Drug Administration standards or decreases in employee health care costs.

Threats

o    The threats of the pharmaceutical industry’s SWOT analysis document the external industry components that could create an opportunity for the industry (or factions of the industry) to decline, atrophy or lose some competitive edge. The external industry components should be environmental factors or aspects outside the industry’s control, yet reflective of the business marketplace. For example, the pharmaceutical industry’s threats could include increased government regulation, a declining economy, increasing research and development (R&D) costs or a decrease in the global population.

How to Construct Your SWOT Analysis

o    A SWOT analysis is displayed in a two-by-two spreadsheet, designed to showcase all four features. Within the two-by-two spreadsheet, strengths and weaknesses are located in the top two boxes, left to right, respectively, and opportunities and threats are located in the bottom two boxes, also left to right, respectively.

New Pharmaceutical Marketing Strategies- Why Needed?

While most of the pharmaceutical companies successfully employ a host of marketing strategies to target various types of customers, the current business and customer trends are continuously creating new challenges as well as opportunities for increasing profitability. If the pharmaceutical companies want to improve their Return-On-Investment (ROI), they have to adopt new communication technologies (digital media) along with their conventional sales force of medical representatives. They really need to adopt this multi channel marketing strategies for the following reasons.

• The concept of blockbuster drugs is dying out for big pharmaceutical companies where 2-3 drugs were good enough to pay back the whole investment for a larger number of manufactured drugs. Now the limited prospective for blockbuster drugs (thanks to low investment on R&D and patent expiry) makes it essential to focus on more specialized drugs sold in lower volumes. And when there is low volume products, sales driven marketing strategy (with high cost of sales force) is not feasible.
• As far as small pharma companies are concerned, they already have small sales force. However, with the use of digital media, having a lower investment cost (both for the company and its targeted customer) they can easily get return on investment.
• Customer behavior (doctors behavior) is rapidly changing. Doctors, who are getting more and more busy with increasing patients, can be hardly seen by the medical representatives. They are more inclined towards Internet for obtaining relevant information. It is the time for pharmaceutical companies to build their marketing strategies around this digital media. Website marketing, online marketing, blogs, social media, forums, chat rooms and any other such media is an influential means to present the company's products and offers through opinion leaders.

The Right Pharmaceutical Marketing Strategy

o    The right marketing strategy for any pharmaceutical company would be to build on proven strategic marketing principles, along with a focus on changing customer behavior. Use of digital media through Internet marketing plan is the best marketing strategy that can provide the basis for a changed business model. However, there should be some planning for using digital media for marketing too. It should be a multi channel marketing strategy but should identify the target audience. Every digital media used for all people can not be called the right marketing strategy. The focus should be on the high value customer segment for pharmaceutical products.

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