Harvard Business Review: How pharma can fix its reputation and its business at the same time

Could transforming access to medicine to a fully-fledged business strategy help pharma companies enhance shareholder value? Damiano de Felice, Strategy Director, examines in his article for Harvard Business Review.

The business model of research-based pharmaceutical companies is under significant pressure. Their return on R&D investment has dropped to its lowest levels in decades, and their public reputation in the United States and abroad is worse than ever.

One antidote to these problems is to transform “access to medicine” from a relentless activist slogan to a fully-fledged business strategy. By that I mean that pharma companies should develop innovative treatments for pervasive unmet medical needs; avoid corruption, collusion, and other unethical marketing practices; and make sure that their products reach as many patients around the world as possible. This strategy will tap potential growth in emerging markets, limit the risks of misconduct, and improve public trust in the industry.

It’s a fact that the current business model of pharma companies is not working efficiently. For each $1 billion spent on R&D, the number of new medicines approved has halved roughly every nine years since 1950. The estimated return on these (fewer) products has itself declined substantially since 2010, from 10.1% to 3.7%.

This decline can be partly explained by the transition from one-size-fits-all blockbuster drugs to niche therapies (which have smaller patient groups). However, it also reflects…

Read the full article in Harvard Business Review.

Shifting mindsets to improve access to medicine

In the article, Jayasree K. Iyer, Executive Director of the Access to Medicine Foundation, describes the corporate strategies that large pharmaceutical companies use to make medicines and vaccines accessible for people living in low- and middle-income countries. She identifies the steps that companies can, and typically do, take when creating an effective access-to-medicine strategy.

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Access by Prescription

In the article, Jayasree K. Iyer, Executive Director at the Access to Medicine Foundation, describes the corporate strategies that large pharmaceutical companies use to make medicines and vaccines accessible for people living in low- and middle-income countries. In this piece, she identifies the steps that companies can and typically do take when creating an effective access-to-medicine strategy.

Harvard Business Review: How pharma can fix its reputation and its business at the same time

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Shifting mindsets to improve access to medicine

Stanford Social Innovation Review: Access by Prescription