Chemical Pharmaceutical Industry Research Articles

Information Asymmetries as Antecedents of Opportunism in Buyer-Supplier Relationships: Testing Principal-Agent Theory

ABSTRACTPurpose: A severe problem in supplier selection refers to moral hazard: suppliers not behaving in the expected way once contracted. Principal-agent theory could provide insights on how to reduce this problem. Because buyer–supplier relationships can be interpreted as principal-agent situations, the application of agency theory should facilitate improved supplier selection. Although theoretically compelling, empirical tests verifying this assumption are not prevalent. Regarding the advancement of theory, this paper tests whether both ex ante and ex post information asymmetries influence moral hazard. In particular, in the context of a globalizing economy with a subsequent increase in information asymmetries as a problem in supplier selection, this conceptual approach may be contributive.Design/methodology/approach: The authors use a set of 87 buyer–supplier relationships to conduct a test, applying a partial least squares model with latent variables. A particularity of the data set is that it contains information on ongoing as well as on discontinued relationships.Findings: The analysis indicated that both ex ante information asymmetries (operationalized by a reputation variable) and ex post asymmetries (operationalized by a monitoring variable) have shown to be significant and strong antecedents explaining the occurrence of moral hazard. Interestingly, and opposed to the common assumption, the length of a relationship and the amount of direct meetings have not revealed any explanatory significance. Buyer dependency hardly showed influence on supplier opportunism.Research limitations/implications: Data were collected from a multitude of buyer–supplier relationships from a single firm in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry. Generalizations to other industries still need to be tested. Socially desirable answering behavior cannot fully be excluded because relationship discontinuation is not a desirable situation. In terms of theory implications, this research adds to the notion that both hidden action and hidden intention can lead to moral hazard.Practical implications: An agency-based analysis can be operationalized with the help of an agency-based supplier classification portfolio. It might be of particular value to firms to discuss those suppliers that scored high in risk of opportunism but did not (yet) reveal any signs of moral hazard. Finally, the strong explanatory powerof reputation alerts buyers to pay more attention to behavioral information on the (potential) supplier available in the market.Originality/value: Analyzing the occurrence of moral hazard and including terminated relationships adds to the emerging stream of literature on relationship discontinuation in B2B markets. Further, the strong empirical results may encourage researchers to elaborate on principal-agent theory-based assumptions, adding another layer of explanation to buyer–supplier relationships. Findings show that reputation is unduly neglected as supplier selection criterion in current theory and practice.

Environmental contamination by fluoroquinolones

Over the past few decades, a high number of pharmaceuticals have been detected in surface, ground and drinking waters. This contamination comes from domestic sewage, livestock, hospitals and chemical-pharmaceutical industries. Typical examples of these pollutants are the fluoroquinolones - powerful antibiotics used in human and veterinary medicine. The presence of fluoroquinolones in the environment can pose a serious threat to the ecosystem and to human health due to their high consumption globally: in 1998, around 120 tons were produced. Even at low environmental concentrations, antibiotics stimulate bacterial resistance. The consequences of the presence of fluoroquinolones in the environment are not fully understood, but are known to be toxic to plants and aquatic organisms. Approximately 85% of the fluoroquinolones present in influents can be removed by conventional wastewater treatment plants, but the removed fraction is frequently accumulated in the sludge, which is sometimes used as fertilizer, representing an additional input route into the environment. The removal of fluoroquinolones by biological treatment is ineffective, and it is believed that only advanced oxidation technologies are able to destroy these emerging pollutants.

Incidence of type 2 diabetes mellitus in a population chronically exposed to arsenic.

Background: Diabetes mellitus (DM) is a chronic disease with an important social and health impact by high frequency, and high mortality due to complications involved. Mexico has a prevalence of 14% remain Jalisco state that ranks third nationally in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM2), with 2.953 deaths for 2011. DM2 recently been linked to arsenic (As) exposure since this metalloid plays an etiological role in the disease. Objective: To evaluate the available information to determine the relationship between arsenic and diabetes mellitus 2 in a population chronically exposed. Methods: We analyzed the DM database of the Mexican Social Security Institute (IMSS) in the municipality of El Salto and Juanacatlán, Jalisco, and inventories of water discharges. Results: There were a total of 3.846 patients with diabetes mellitus, of which, 796 were for type 1 diabetes mellitus (DM 1) and 3.047 to DM 2. Of the group of patients with DM 2, 1.765, higher incidence was observed in women and a significant increase in men and for every man if there are two cases of women. Pollution indices indicate that 36.5% are chemical-pharmaceutical industry, 15% food and beverage industry and textiles to 12.3%, which discharged directly to waters with pollutants As. Conclusions: It is necessary to further studies to determine the influence of the As in the development of T2DM in this area of environmental fragility.

Spinal Block with 1.5 mg Hyperbaric Bupivacaine: Not Successful for Everyone

To the Editor: A recent report by Wassef et al. (1) described successful spinal block with 1.5 mg bupivacaine for short perianal surgery. Our department has been conducting investigational protocols on spinal anesthesia (2,3) including a dose-finding study with hyperbaric bupivacaine for perianal surgery. Fifty-four of 160 planned patients with perianal pathologies (hemorrhoids, fistulas, anal lesions) have been recruited and randomly assigned to receive 2, 3, 4, or 5 mg of hyperbaric 0.5% bupivacaine intrathecally. Protocol stipulations include switching failed spinal to general anesthesia and termination of a dose-group for failure rates greater than 20% at interim analyses. From the available data, block efficacy by bupivacaine seems dose-dependent: low at 2 mg (20%), near maximal (90%) at 3 mg, and maximal (100%) at the highest doses. At 2 mg, specifically, bupivacaine provides a block (i.e., pin-prick anesthesia of S4 dermatome [86 ± 37 min], inability of walking [129 ± 18 min] and of voiding [184 ± 36 min]) that is effective for surgery only in one of five patients. For this reason, 2 mg bupivacaine will not be tested further under this protocol. Recovery times reported by Wassef et al. in their 1.5 mg bupivacaine group are similar to those found in our 2 mg group. Only two patients in the 1.5 mg group by Wassef et al. (1) (5%) required intraoperative sedation and analgesics to alleviate “discomfort,” whereas we had an 80% failure rate in our 2 mg group. After the publication by Wassef et al., we asked the drug manufacturer (Recordati Chemical Pharmaceutical Industry, Milan, Italy) to check the actual concentration of bupivacaine. An HPLC analysis on three unopened vials (batch number 018, expiration date June 2009) yielded a 97%–103% of the labeled amount (mean bupivacaine concentration 4.94 mg/mL). Our patient population seems to be similar to the Wassef et al. groups as far as clinical features and had no significant pain symptoms before surgery. All spinal anesthetics were performed by staff anesthesiologists experienced with the technique. “Clusters” of failed spinals even with higher doses of bupivacaine (9–12 mg) can be found in the literature (4–6). In those cases, authors were not able to find a clear reason for the failure and their hypothetical explanations dealt with the “heat intolerance” of bupivacaine or patient related factors such as diabetes or other anatomical or biochemical abnormalities (6,7) that may cause resistance to local anesthetics. We reviewed charts and blood tests of our patients and none of them has diabetes. We did not test sensitivity to local anesthetics in individual patients. Failure of spinal anesthesia occurred only at a 2 mg dose of bupivacaine suggesting that, at least in our patients, this dose may be not sufficient to ensure intraoperative analgesia for perianal surgery in all patient populations, a finding worth of note. Michele Carron Ulderico Freo Stefano Veronese Federico Innocente Carlo Ori Department of Pharmacology and Anesthesiology University of Padova, Italy [email protected]

Translational Regenerative Medicine Research: Essential to Discovery and Outcome

Today’s pharmaceutical business had its origins in the late nineteenth century with the dramatic expansion of a new industry based on chemical synthesis. By the time that modern biology began to be established as a basis for medical intervention after the Second World War, this chemistry had been immensely refined and scaled-up. Not surprisingly, it became the basis for the chemical pharmaceutical era that dominated the scene for the following 40 years. Because of this history, the chemical pharmaceutical industry and the academic scientists associated with it tended to focus almost completely on discovery and gave little attention to scale-up. The half century of applied chemistry and chemical engineering usually meant the eventual mass production went smoothly. This process apathy was, however, shattered with the discovery of more complex but potentially potent biopharmaceutical drugs. Unlike small-molecule drugs, there was no history of large-scale processing – the science of genetic engineering was too new so quite often scale-up did not work. Biopharmaceuticals are drugs such as recombinant proteins and monoclonal antibodies that are produced by means other than direct extraction from a natural (i.e., nonengineered) biological source [1]. The starting materials are typically engineered microbial or mammalian cell lines. Being produced in living organisms, the challenges to mass production include extracting and purifying single human-engineered proteins from the thousands of host proteins and other cellular contaminants. This was problematic in the early years but the results are now spectacular. For example, recombinant erythropoietin, which is prescribed for the treatment of anemia caused by chronic renal failure or cancer chemotherapy, generates billions of dollars every year. Revenues

Cross-border R&D alliances, absorptive capacity and technology learning

Drawing from research on alliance learning, we develop a model of technology learning by integrating technological capabilities and alliance knowledge in a framework of absorptive capacity. We also differentiate between absolute and relative components of absorptive capacity. Our study of the chemical–pharmaceutical industry found that technology learning was higher when firms were quick to adopt new technologies and when they have accumulated experience via alliances. Among alliances, cross-border R&D alliances have the strongest effect on technology learning. Overall, the findings show the pronounced effect of absolute absorptive capacity on technology learning.

Dermatitis alérgica aerotransportada en la industria químico-farmacéutica

Abstract—Introduction. Airborne contact dermatitis (ABCD) refers to all skin reactions that appear after contact with a series of substances found in the ambient air, which cause lesions after being deposited on exposed areas of the skin, mainly the face and neck. Its clinical symptoms are polymorphic, with eczematous lesions predominating in most cases. There are numerous chemical, industrial and pharmaceutical products that have been described as professional airborne allergens, and their frequency seems to be increasing; therefore, it is important to be aware of them in order to make the correct diagnoses. Material and methodsWe present 18 cases of airborne contact dermatitis (ABCD) in workers in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, who were diagnosed at the Occupational Dermatology Department from 1980 to 2002. We compare the type of lesions, their location, the evolution period from exposure to development of the clinical symptoms, the skin tests performed, and the age and sex of the patients and the company where they worked. ResultsIn all of the cases, the ABCD appeared during the process of manufacturing a drug, with the sensitizing agent in most cases being the final product or one of the intermediate metabolites. Sensitization was proven by positivity in the specific skin tests that were performed. ConclusionsThe study of these patients is complicated, as the collaboration of their companies (physicians, chemists, hygienists) is needed to provide us with information about the products and their composition and the work methods, as well as trained staff to prepare the dilutions used for applying patches to the patient.

Plant co-ordination in pharmaceutics supply networks

The production of active ingredients in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry involves numerous production stages with cumulative lead times of up to two years. Mainly because of rigorous purity requirements and the need of extensive cleaning of the equipment units, production is carried out in campaigns, i.e. multiple batches of the same product type are produced successively before changing to another product type. Each campaign requires a specific configuration of equipment units according to the recipes of the particular chemical process. In the chemical-pharmaceutical industry, production stages are often assigned to different locations, even different countries. Hence the co-ordination of plant operations within the resulting multi-national supply network is of major importance. A key issue is the co-ordination of campaign schedules at different production stages in the various plants. In practice, it is almost impossible to determine exact optimal solutions to the corresponding complex supply network problem with respect to overall logistics costs. In order to reduce the required computational effort, we introduce several aggregation schemes and a novel MILP model formulation which is based on a continuous representation of time. Moreover, we propose an iterative near-optimal solution procedure which can be successfully applied to even exceptionally large real life problem instances. The applicability of the approach suggested is shown using a case study from industry.

Shareholder Value, Management Culture and Production Regimes in the Transformation of the German Chemical-Pharmaceutical Industry

One of the greatest points of controversy in the recent literature in political economy is the extent to which “shareholder value” oriented institutional investors are drivers of change in national systems of corporate governance. This article argues that the key question is how management cultures shape managerial responses to pressures for change from capital markets. Empirical evidence for this argument is provided through an examination of changes since the mid-1990s at the “Big Three” German integrated chemical/pharmaceutical companies: Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. Despite facing similar demands from shareholder-value oriented investors, management at the three companies have pursued quite different strategies. The end result, however, may be the same from a production regime perspective, that is, the long-run withdrawal of “Big Pharma” from Germany as a location for R&D due to a more favorable institutional framework in the US.

Shareholder Value, Management Culture and Production Regimes in the Transformation of the German Chemical-Pharmaceutical Industry

One of the greatest points of controversy in the recent literature in political economy is the extent to which shareholder value oriented institutional investors are drivers of change in national systems of corporate governance. This article argues that the key question is how management cultures shape managerial responses to pressures for change from capital markets. Empirical evidence for this argument is provided through an examination of changes since the mid-1990s at the Big Three German integrated chemical/pharmaceutical companies: Hoechst, Bayer and BASF. Despite facing similar demands from shareholder-value oriented investors, management at the three companies have pursued quite different strategies. The end result, however, may be the same from a production regime perspective, that is, the long-run withdrawal of Big Pharma from Germany as a location for R&D due to a more favorable institutional framework in the US.

Coagulation-flocculation pretreatment of high-load chemical-pharmaceutical industry wastewater: mixing aspects

The selection of a coagulant-flocculant agent which, based on the maximum chemical oxygen demand removal, warrants the best performance of the removal system for a very complex high-load chemical-pharmaceutical industry wastewater, is described. A total of 23 coagulants/flocculants was tested, including salts, poly-hidroxyaluminates, synthetic polymers as well as natural gums. In a second stage, some mixing aspects were studied. The effects of the specific impeller, the agitation speed during the coagulation and flocculation stages, and the absence or presence of baffles were evaluated in a six-place agitation system. The conventional impellers were replaced by the following types of propellers: Rushton, marine, A310 (Lightning), three flat blades, 45° inclined six blades, and conventional flat blade propeller. It was demonstrated that the appropriate coagulation-flocculation system is capable of diminishing the COD, the apparent color and the dissolved solids up to 40.6, 25.6 and 39.4%, respectively. The best results were observed when using BL-5086, guar gum, Niad II-3, Niad II-4 and locus beam gum. The impeller performance was highly dependent on the agitation speed for each fixed system. With respect to the mixing aspects, it was shown that the selection of the right propeller for the coagulation and flocculation stages is crucial in determining the quality of the treated water, as well as the quantity and quality of the residual sludges generated in the process.

Coagulation?flocculation pretreatment of high-load chemical?pharmaceutical industry wastewater: Mixing aspects

The selection of a coagulant-flocculant agent which, based on the maximum chemical oxygen demand removal, warrants the best performance of the removal system for a very complex high-load chemical-pharmaceutical industry wastewater, is described. A total of 23 coagulants/flocculants was tested, including salts, poly-hidroxyaluminates, synthetic polymers as well as natural gums. In a second stage, some mixing aspects were studied. The effects of the specific impeller, the agitation speed during the coagulation and flocculation stages, and the absence or presence of baffles were evaluated in a six-place agitation system. The conventional impellers were replaced by the following types of propellers: Rushton, marine, A310 (Lightning), three flat blades, 45° inclined six blades, and conventional flat blade propeller. It was demonstrated that the appropriate coagulation-flocculation system is capable of diminishing the COD, the apparent color and the dissolved solids up to 40.6, 25.6 and 39.4%, respectively. The best results were observed when using BL-5086, guar gum, Niad II-3, Niad II-4 and locus beam gum. The impeller performance was highly dependent on the agitation speed for each fixed system. With respect to the mixing aspects, it was shown that the selection of the right propeller for the coagulation and flocculation stages is crucial in determining the quality of the treated water, as well as the quantity and quality of the residual sludges generated in the process.

Calibration of a model for an A + B acivated sludge pilot plant treating industrial wastewater

A mathematical model has been developed and calibrated for a two-stage (A + B) activated sludge pilot plant treating wastewater from a chemical-pharmaceutical industry. Two series of simulations have been performed: (a) by using typical values for the parameters of the model from the bibliography, which remain constant with time, and (b) by using, for some parameters, values which are variable with time, and are determined following a specific methodology. The calibration is constrained to be exactly consistent with daily observations of COD from the effluent and reactor suspended solids (MLSS). Three internal parameters of the system were thus obtained in their daily variation: MLSS growth rate, specific substrate removal rate and concentration factor in the settling tank. Mean values obtained for MLSS growth rate were 0.73 d −1 and 0.022 d −1 for reactors A and B respectively, and the average observed biomass yield coefficient was 0.38 (reactor A) and 0.21 (reactor B). The model infered the evolution of the COD and MLSS with a fairly good accuracy, proving that the method used to obtain the parameters does not have internal inconsistencies and may be used in other situations.

ProfiSEE: A workbench for visual interactive simulation modelling in the chemical-pharmaceutical industry

The use of Visual Interactive Simulation Modelling (VISM) as an Operations Research (OR) technique is gaining widespread popularity in CIBA-GEIGY. Currently, the demand for these applications, which are contributing millions of SFr. in savings and benefits, exceeds the available manpower in the OR group of CIBA-GEIGY. In an effort to streamline the modelling process the OR group developed a modeller's workbench for VISM called ProfiSEE.

Principles of rational selection and use of drug combinations

Advances in pharmacy, pharmacology in recent years and the rapid development of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry have significantly expanded the arsenal of drugs used, the number of which continues to increase. With the introduction into practice of new drugs, the possibilities of etiotropic and pathogenetic therapy have increased. However, at the same time as the effectiveness of drug therapy has increased, it has become less safe. In recent years, cases of drug-induced side effects, which often exceed the severity of the underlying disease, have increased.

ChemInform Abstract: ADVANCES IN THE CHEMISTRY OF HETEROCYCLES AND THE CHEMICAL‐PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY OF THE USSR (REVIEW)

Chemischer InformationsdienstVolume 9, Issue 13 Heterocyclic Compounds ChemInform Abstract: ADVANCES IN THE CHEMISTRY OF HETEROCYCLES AND THE CHEMICAL-PHARMACEUTICAL INDUSTRY OF THE USSR (REVIEW) L. N. YAKHONTOV, L. N. YAKHONTOVSearch for more papers by this author L. N. YAKHONTOV, L. N. YAKHONTOVSearch for more papers by this author First published: March 28, 1978 https://doi.org/10.1002/chin.197813168AboutPDF ToolsRequest permissionExport citationAdd to favoritesTrack citation ShareShare Give accessShare full text accessShare full-text accessPlease review our Terms and Conditions of Use and check box below to share full-text version of article.I have read and accept the Wiley Online Library Terms and Conditions of UseShareable LinkUse the link below to share a full-text version of this article with your friends and colleagues. Learn more.Copy URL Share a linkShare onFacebookTwitterLinked InRedditWechat No abstract is available for this article. Volume9, Issue13March 28, 1978 RelatedInformation

Planning of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry in the USSR

Planning of the chemical-pharmaceutical industry in the USSR

The chemical-pharmaceutical industry in France

The chemical-pharmaceutical industry in France