Pharmaceutical Firms Research Articles

Winning a Prestigious Award and Unethical Behaviors of Chinese Pharmaceutical Firms

Building on institutional theories of legitimacy, this study explores the effect of winning a prestigious award on firms’ unethical behaviors. We argue that enhanced legitimacy of a subgroup in an industry due to a prestigious award can lead firms in such a subfield to commit fewer bribery activities because increased legitimacy can bring more resources to these firms and the need for bribery as an alternative channel for acquiring resources is reduced. In the context of Youyou Tu’s Nobel Prize win in 2015, where the use of traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) in her research was emphasized, we find empirical support for our theoretical hypotheses as our results reveal that compared with firms focusing on Western medicines, TCM firms tended to commit fewer bribery acts after the announcement of the Nobel Prize win. We also demonstrate that factors affecting the supply and demand of bribery, including state ownership, firm profitability, regional marketization, and regional memory of foreign influences, could moderate the impact of Nobel Prize winning on a firm’s tendency to commit bribery. This study emphasizes the important role of legitimacy gained from winning a prestigious award in firms’ choices of unethical actions. It makes significant contributions to the literature on legitimacy, prestigious awards, and firm ethics.

Linking knowledge search to knowledge creation: the intermediate role of knowledge complexity

PurposeKnowledge search is considered a broad concept and semi-intentional behavior. The path and boundary conditions through which search strategies affect intra-organizational knowledge creation remain elusive. Drawing on recombinant search theory and knowledge-based view, the authors seek to identify knowledge complexity as an important intermediate variable between knowledge search and innovation performance, such as research and development (R&D) output and R&D output quality. A second goal of this study is to examine the moderating roles of government support and technological turbulence.Design/methodology/approachThe authors employed a longitudinal panel of 609 global pharmaceutical firms and obtained the firms' patent records from 1980 to 2015 for the analysis. The authors used generalized estimating equations (GEE) to evaluate the models and tested the consistency via panel fixed-effects estimations.FindingsThe authors' findings show that organizational routine-guided search has a negative effect on knowledge complexity, while routine-changing search exerts a positive impact on knowledge complexity. Governmental support and technological turbulence moderate these relationships. Notably, knowledge complexity has an inverted U-shaped relationship with innovation performance.Research limitations/implicationsThe authors' research context, the pharmaceutical industry, may constrain the generalizability of our findings. In addition, potential types of routine-guided and routine-changing search behaviors were not considered.Practical implicationsDespite these limitations, this study offers important implications. First, knowledge complexity transmits the effects of knowledge search on innovation performance. Practitioners should balance routine-guided and routine-changing search processes to build and manage complex knowledge. Second, a moderate level of knowledge complexity is the key to good R&D output and R&D output quality.Originality/valueThe study identifies knowledge complexity as one important intermediate variable between knowledge search behaviors and intra-organizational knowledge creation.

Post-implementation challenges of ERP system in pharmaceutical companies

PurposeMany organizations failed to generate profits after investing considerable money and time in Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems. This study, therefore, sought to identify the challenges encountered by pharmaceutical firms during the post-implementation of ERP systems.Design/methodology/approachA case-based study followed by general survey-based research was carried out in pharmaceutical firms to determine the critical post-implementation challenges of ERP systems. DANP (DEMATEL-based ANP) and Wilcoxon Signed Rank test were used to find the causal/critical challenges and rank them.FindingsAfter analyzing a pharmaceutical case company and conducting a general survey among pharmaceutical companies, statistical analysis was performed to identify the most significant challenges, namely, “Inefficient troubleshooting mechanism”, “Lack of training during post-implementation stage” and “Difficulty in identifying invalid data when entered into the ERP system”. Furthermore, organization-wide challenges are considered to be the most important.Practical implicationsThe paper identifies the challenges faced during the post-implementation phase of ERP systems. This work brings out the issues with ERP systems' performance after their implementation, which is related to the quality of the ERP systems. This work will support the risk identification and mitigation during ERP implementation to eradicate the problems after its implementation. This work may trigger the ERP system developers to improve its features and performance for better manufacturing and supply chain management system in pharmaceutical firms.Originality/valueThis study is uniquely conducted in pharmaceutical firms to study the benefits and challenges of adopted ERP systems. A pilot case study served as the foundation for the generalizability of other pharmaceutical firms' findings through a non-parametric test.

Just Rules for Innovative Pharmaceuticals

Globalized in 1995 through the TRIPs Agreement, humanity’s dominant mechanism for encouraging innovations involves 20-year product patents, whose monopoly features enable innovators to reap large markups or licensing fees from early users. Exclusive reliance on this reward mechanism in the pharmaceutical sector is morally problematic for two main reasons. First, it imposes a great burden on poor people who cannot afford to buy patented treatments at monopoly prices and whose specific health problems are therefore neglected by pharmacological research. Second, it discourages pharmaceutical firms from fighting diseases at the population level with the aim of slashing their incidence. These problems can be alleviated by establishing a supplementary alternative reward mechanism that would enable pharmaceutical innovators to exchange their monopoly privileges on a patented product for impact rewards based on the actual health gains achieved with this product. As such, an international Health Impact Fund (HIF) would create powerful new incentives to rapidly develop remedies against diseases concentrated among the poor, provide such remedies with ample care at very low prices, and deploy them strategically to contain, suppress, and ideally eradicate the target disease. By promoting innovations and their diffusion together, the HIF would greatly enlarge the benefits, and thereby also the cost-effectiveness, of the pharmaceutical sector, especially in favor of the world’s poor.

"Demographic Factors Determining Consumer Perception Regarding Heath Insurance in India: An Empirical Study"

Health and Health Insurance are the major concerns with which everyone is dealing in the present environment. In India, there is an increase in healthcare service perception. It gives a good opportunity for the healthcare industry to expand. There is an enlargement of health insurance in terms of ‘dimensions’ and ‘mechanism’ in order to give economic aid for services of health care to the patients, physicians, employers, insurance companies, pharmaceutical firms, and government. The main aim behind the expansion of health insurance schemes through healthcare reforms in the country is to reduce the poverty. A sample of 230 consumers of health insurance with different age groups and occupations were surveyed with the help of a standard questionnaire and random sampling to know their perceptions regarding health insurance. T-test, ANOVA, and Post Hoc test were applied to get the appropriate results. It has been found that there is a significant difference between males and females in their perceptions regarding health insurance. It is also seen that there is a significant difference in the perceptions regarding health insurance among the consumers belonging to different age groups and with different occupations.

The Influence of Knowledge Management Capacities on Pharmaceutical Firms Competitive Advantage: The Mediating Role of Supply Chain Agility and Moderating Role of Inter Functional Integration.

This study investigates the factors such as knowledge management capacities and their positive influence on firm competitive advantage or the supply chain agility of the firm and the underlying mechanisms (supply chain agility) that facilitate the firm's performance and leads to firm competitive advantage. It also explores the moderating role of inter-functional integration. We have collected the data from the 308 supply chain managers of pharmaceutical firms in Pakistan and questionnaires were used for data collection with multi-item scales already developed and validated. The findings suggest that knowledge management capacities significantly influence a firm's competitive advantage or supply chain agility. The supply chain agility fully mediates between absorptive capacity, transformative capacity, and firm competitive advantage. Further, supply chain agility partially mediates between inventive capacity and firm competitive advantage. Meanwhile, inter-functional integration moderates the relationship between supply chain agility and firm competitive advantage, with their positive relationship strengthening when inter-functional integration is high. The study provides empirical evidence that knowledge management capacities (such as absorptive capacity, transformative capacity, and inventive capacity), supply chain agility, and inter-functional can be important factors in improving firm performance.

Prostate Cancer Drug Therapy: What Have Clinicians Missed During the COVID-19 Pandemic.

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, major congresses and many teaching opportunities as well as the usual visits from medical advisors of pharmaceutical firms have been postponed and canceled. The major trials of prostate cancer in the last 5 years in each state are shortly discussed providing a panoramic overview of the available evidence and data on prostate cancer treatment. Apalutamide, enzalutamide, and darolutamide have proven to have clinical benefits when added to androgen deprivation therapy for patients with nonmetastatic castration-resistant prostate cancer. In patients in the metastatic hormone-sensitive setting, next to docetaxel, abiraterone, enzalutamide, and apalutamide have been shown to significantly improve overall survival and progression-free survival in comparison to standard hormone therapy. In addition, docetaxel abiraterone and enzalutamide are widely used in the metastatic setting. For second-line therapy of metastasized prostate cancer patients who have received either docetaxel or abiraterone or enzalutamide, olaparib, cabazitaxel, radium, and lutetium therapy have been shown to be beneficial in selected patient groups.

Endogeneity in pharmaceutical knowledge generation: An instrument‐free copula approach for Poisson frontier models

AbstractThis study provides an assessment of the R&D–patent relation of European pharmaceutical firms that are not flawed by endogeneity biases. Firms invest in R&D and generate latent knowledge which then manifests in observable patent outcomes through a Poisson model. The process of turning R&D into knowledge is described by a production process subject to inefficiency and endogeneity. To estimate a Poisson stochastic frontier model, the suggested novel copula‐based approach directly accounts for the dependence between the endogenous regressors and the inefficiency component. Hence, its implementation does not require any instrumental variables. Simulation results underline that the proposed estimator outperforms conventional instrumental variable estimators. Neglecting endogeneity leads to a substantial underestimation of the R&D elasticity of patents generated in the European pharmaceutical industry.

Avoiding Global Pandemic Injustice

Abstract COVID-19 has highlighted the failure of the current monopoly market system of pharmaceutical industries to efficiently and equitably distribute lifesaving health commodities in a pandemic. The pre-purchasing of COVID-19 vaccines in 2021 by high income countries (outside of the global coordinated effort called the COVAX facility) has led to inequitable access to vaccines globally. This may have contributed to the development of new COVID-19 variants of concern such as ‘Omicron’. Further, vaccine inequity has resulted in the poor suffering the worst health and economic outcomes of the pandemic. COVID-19 has deepened inequalities and increased global poverty. While high income countries are on a path to recovery with pre-pandemic growth rates forecast for 2022, low and middle income countries are still in economic recession, with growth rates forecast to remain at 5.5 percentage points below pre-pandemic levels by 2024. The Health Impact Fund approach offers an alternative, whereby pharmaceutical firms profit in proportion to their contribution to reducing the disease burden rather than through monopoly rents from product sales.

Efficiency and Book-to-Market Ratios of U.S. Pharmaceutical Firms

Using data envelopment analysis (DEA), we calculate sales efficiency for U.S. pharmaceutical firms and find it to be positively associated with those firms’ book-to-market ratios (a measure widely used in the finance literature to estimate the risk and growth potential of firms’ common stock). Thus, we conclude that sales-efficient firms in this industry are, on average, undervalued and suggest that the U.S. pharmaceutical industry is characterized by firms making off-balance sheet investments, which we argue leads to efficiency during our sample years (2009-2015). We also conduct longitudinal analyses and conclude that firms in our sample with smaller asset levels are more efficient. Finally, we conduct a slack analysis, which concludes that most of the overvalued companies exhibit inefficiencies in their utilization of research and development costs and selling, general, and administrative costs. Fewer of those firms exhibit inefficient utilization of their costs of goods sold.

Approach of analytical quality by design and regulatory need

This paper gives idea about the Pharmaceutical Quality by Design (QbD) and describes use of Quality by Design to ensure quality of Pharmaceuticals. Quality cannot be tested into products but quality should be built in by design. The concept of QbD can be extended to analytical methods. The emphasis of AQbD approach is on understanding of the operation and the variables affecting Analytical Methods employed in product development. The variables which affect the output are identified and subjected to thorough risk assessment employing various tools and techniques discussed in the article, after which the variables are optimized. The final method is validated and a control strategy is put in place. Pharmaceutical firms increased the number of product development by using scientific tools such as QbD (Quality by Design). ICH Q11 guidelines clearly discussed QbD approach for API synthesis with examples. It is a current trend among pharmaceutical industry to implement analytical quality by design (AQbD) in method development process as a part of risk management, pharmaceutical development, and pharmaceutical quality system (ICH Q10). QbD has its perspectives to contribute the drug design, development, and manufacture of high-quality drug products.

Estimating the degree of firms’ input market power via data envelopment analysis: Evidence from the global biotechnology and pharmaceutical industry

This study estimates input market power by introducing an input-market-based Lerner index based on data envelopment analysis (DEA). This index is an extension to the DEA-based Lerner index. In doing so, we develop a revenue function, which is based on minimum distance framework. DEA based-Lerner indexes are commonly based on efficiency measures aiming at finding the “farthest” strongly efficient point. However, if firms operate in non-optimal scales, then such a methodological treatment can be restrictive. In our case, we adopt the minimum distance. We utilize a strongly revenue-efficient frontier and model a DEA based Lerner index which is less restrictive. We apply our index to a sample of global biotechnology and pharmaceutical (B&P) firms over the period 2015–2019. We further investigate the effect of firms’ research and development (R&D) on firms’ market power estimated by the input-market DEA-based Lerner indexes. Our findings suggest that the investment on R&D has a nonlinear effect on firms’ market power. Finally, our finding suggest that the positive effect of R&D is more pronounced on the estimated firms’ employees-based market power compared to the asset-based market power index.

Knowledge recombination, environmental turbulence and firms' innovation quality: the evidence from Chinese pharmaceutical industry

PurposeShifting focus from innovation quantity to innovation quality becomes a priority in innovation study, business and policy. This paper aims to figure out whether and how knowledge recombination (recombinant exploration/recombinant exploitation) affects firms' innovation quality (technological value/economic value) and how these relationships are moderated by environmental turbulence (technological turbulence/market turbulence) in the context of open innovation.Design/methodology/approachA panel data set is built on 373 Chinese pharmaceutical firms' patents and new product data from 1997 to 2020. And a negative binomial regression model is applied to test the hypotheses.FindingsThe analyses indicate that (1) recombinant exploration favors technological value but hinders economic value, while (2) recombinant exploitation benefits both. Regarding environmental turbulence's moderating effects, (3) technological turbulence has opposite moderating effects on the impacts of recombinant exploration versus exploitation on technological value, whereas (4) market turbulence benefits the impacts of both on economic value.Practical implicationsThis research provides the answer to practitioners' question that “How to improve innovation quality?” That is “Think from a recombination logic, clarify your internal value preference and the external turbulence.”Originality/valueFrom an emerging perspective of innovation, this research expands the innovation quality research to a recombination logic. A multi-dimensional research framework is developed to clarify the complex relationships between knowledge recombination and innovation quality. Finally, two moderators, technological versus market turbulence, formulate more targeted implications for firms' innovation management in open innovation.

The Impact of the Consistency Evaluation Policy of Generic Drugs on R&D Investment Intensity of Pharmaceutical Companies—An Empirical Study Based on the Difference-in-Differences Model

In 2016, China began to execute the consistency evaluation policy of generic drugs. Many scholars believed that the policy would stimulate pharmaceutical firms to increase R&D investment with a theoretical perspective, but few have conducted empirical studies. Therefore, we conduct a difference-in-differences (DID) model and use panel data of 111 A-share listed pharmaceutical firms from 2012 to 2020 to empirically study the impact of the consistency evaluation policy of generic drugs on pharmaceutical firms' R&D investment intensity. The result shows that the policy has a significant positive impact on the R&D investment intensity of firms with chemical generics, robust under the test for parallel trend test, placebo test, and the propensity score matching and difference-in-differences (PSM-DID) test. In addition, we further analyzed the impact of this policy on the R&D intensity of pharmaceutical firms according to the heterogeneity of enterprise's operational nature, regional distribution and profitability. From the perspective of time changes and the average effect, the R&D investment intensity of private pharmaceutical firms is more affected by the policy than state-owned enterprises; the R&D investment intensity of pharmaceutical firms in the eastern region is more affected by this policy than those in the central and the western; the R&D investment intensity of high-profitability pharmaceutical firms is more affected by the policy than those with low-profitability. The consistency evaluation policy is still being implemented, and its impact on pharmaceutical firms needs to be studied from different empirical research perspectives in the future.

Nipah Virus: An Updated Review and Emerging Challenges

Many hospitals are teetering on the edge of being overwhelmed, with many already there because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, a recent report has also warned about the Nipah virus (NiV). NiV is a pleomorphic enveloped virus that belongs to the Paramyxoviridae family (genus Henipavirus); it affects both the respiratory and central nervous systems, with a fatality rate ranging from 40% to 75%, as documented by the World Health Organization. The first reported NiV outbreak was in early 1999 in Malaysia among people who contacted infected pigs. NiV also affected Bangladesh and India, where the main infection route was the consumption of raw date palm sap contaminated by bats. The World Health Organization has listed NiV as one of the emerging pathogens that can lead to severe outbreaks at any moment in the future with limited medical preparations and only a few projects in pharmaceutical firms. There is no licensed treatment for human use against NiV until now, and the management is limited to supportive care and symptomatic treatment. In severe cases with neurologic and respiratory complications, intensive care is needed. This article reviews the published literature and highlights the latest updates about this emerging pathogen and the methods to avoid the spread of this disease during this critical period.

Analytical Study of TDS and Sulphate Concentration in Ground Water: A Case Study of Vatva Region of Ahmedabad District, Gujarat

Abstract: The most valuable natural resource for human life is groundwater. It is certainly required in all parts of life and wellbeing for energy generation, food production, industrial activities, maintenance of the environment and enhances sustainable development for future generations. Fresh groundwater has become a popular subject in recent years. Water is continuously contaminated in all nations. India is no special case to this marvel. In India, over 80% of the rural population depend on groundwater. People face a barrier in getting safe, portable drinking water since groundwater quality is impacted by public activity and utilities. The frequent monitoring of sources of groundwater and its quality helps to create and develop public awareness of groundwater resources. The area having high contamination of ground water is selected named as Vatva located in Ahmedabad district of Gujarat, due to urbanization and the presence of many chemical refineries and pharmaceutical firms in the vicinity. During the investigation, the most impacted pollutants, such as TDS, Nitrate, Chloride and Sulphate were valuated. QGIS is used to do a spatial distribution study of all of these parameters. Ground water quality index graphs are also generated using the IS 10500: 2012 drinking water quality standard as a reference. Keywords: Ground Water Contamination, Spatial Distribution, QGIS, TDS, Nitrate, Chloride, Sulphate

Indemnification, Monitoring, and Competition: Evidence from R&D Contracts

Abstract This article examines the adoption of indemnification clauses in research and development (R&D) contracts, in which a firm commits to reimbursing its agent against liabilities and legal costs. Indemnification achieves efficient risk sharing but dilutes the agent’s incentives to take precautions. Such incentives may be restored if the firm offers contingent indemnification and monitors the agent’s activities. Additionally, tougher competition can motivate the firm and agent to take more aggressive R&D activities, which leads to higher liability risks. We show that the optimal contract is more likely to include an indemnification clause when monitoring is more effective and market competition is tougher. By investigating R&D agreements between pharmaceutical firms and biotech agents, we find relevant empirical observations. We also observe a positive correlation between the use of indemnification clauses and the use of termination rights that allow firms to terminate projects without cause.

Patient susceptibility to over‐trust: The case of off‐label prescribing

AbstractConsumer researchers focus on two primary constructs when studying pharmaceuticals: benefit and risk perceptions. Herein, we propose three variables that can influence how consumers view the benefit‐to‐risk profile of a drug: (1) trust in the doctor, (2) susceptibility to over‐trust and (3) perceived maverickism. We find that the more the consumer trusts a doctor, the greater the perceived benefits of an off‐label drug prescribed by that doctor. This relationship is magnified when consumers are susceptible to over‐trusting their doctor. Off‐label prescribing also increases the perception that a doctor is a maverick. We test the boundaries of these effects by considering agency breach perceptions arising from pharmaceutical firms' payments to prescribing doctors. Agency breach perceptions reduce post‐encounter doctor trust. Overall, this work suggests that trust reduces the likelihood that consumers will engage in the behaviors needed for the marketplace to correct itself.

Antifungals advance

Pharmaceutical firms are making progress in addressing the need for new antifungal therapies. F2G, which specializes in the treatment of rare fungal diseases, says it will receive $100 million from the Japanese firm Shionogi in a deal to develop olorofim, an antifungal agent for invasive aspergillosis and other rare mold infections. This news follows Mycovia Pharmaceuticals’ statement April 28 that the US Food and Drug Administration approved its azole antifungal Vivjoa (oteseconazole) for chronic yeast infections. The announcements reflect efforts to fill gaps in treating fungal infections, which have limited treatment options and increasing resistance . Olorofim is part of the first new class of antifungals to be developed in 20 years, according to F2G. Chief Operating Officer Mike Birch says the firm is preparing a new drug application to submit to the FDA later this year. The deal with Shionogi is focused on Europe and Asia. Olorofim works by

‘Manufacturers without factories’ and economic development in the Global South: India’s pharmaceutical firms

AbstractGlobal value chain/global production network studies have extensively documented the role of lead firms from the Global North in economic development in the Global South, including as ‘manufacturers without factories’ (MWFs). However, the role of local firms in sourcing from suppliers has been overlooked. In this article, we report the findings of a qualitative study and demonstrate that the local MWFs helped establish India as the leading supplier of pharmaceuticals worldwide and in the Global South. We show how the different types of local MWFs (‘propagandists’, ‘pioneers’, ‘connectors’ and ‘adaptors’) impact the strategic coupling, industrial upgrading and governance in South–South value chains and contribute to regional economic development.