Case Assignment for Opt-e-Scrip - Essay Example

1) Pharmaceutical companies: they want drugs to be rolled out in market with a big bang. They want huge marketing campaigns to surround the drug in order for it to be profitable. Nothing wrong in it, but with serious doubts on drug efficacy and serious issue of low drug response makes the prices of branded drugs unjustified. Companies will want to see this product sidelined as this poses a serious threat to their business plans. 2) Wholesalers: they are not so concerned with OES products and not directly affected.

But if our products go global and create a wide spread impact even the wholesalers will be affected as majority of its business comes from selling high priced branded drugs. 3) Pharmacy Benefit Managers (PBM): they are the ones who will be certainly affected by OES products. They are the ones who list down the products under the benefit plan and hence the pharma co. gets business. They also get commission and under the table benefits in cash and kind for including costly branded drugs. PBM might not want our drug to go global.

Only 4 PBMs control more than 50% of drug market which means they have an immense power over the drug industry, its prices and policies. 4) Retail pharmacies: their involvement in the whole drug distribution market was important but the effect of OES will not be as intense. They sell generic and branded products and rely upon their margins and some incentives of selling branded drugs. If they are not able to sell a lot of branded products, they can diversify and sell many other related products.

Only the large retails pharmacy chains which are also PBMs might be affected by PMT. 5) Health insurance carriers: many are a part of PBM or outsourced to them and few have their own PBM service in-house. They work in very close coordination with PBMs. It is good for health insurance companies to actually see OES products do well so that it saves on the payouts to people who claim benefit from them. If we try to seek their support for OES and keep them as confederates it will help us. 6) Employers: one leads to another, a cascading effect where employers and payers can play a big role.

Employer can use health insurers who use such PBMs who support our products and hence create a win win for overall benefit of society. 7) Physicians: they are one of the key. Though the plan surrounding them failed once, OES should not be let down by it. There is scope to win their support and make OES products a hit. 8) Consumers: they are the one who are the key beneficiaries of the whole OES campaign to introduce PMT. If a wide spread public support is seeked it will help OES reinforce the concept for the drug industry.

Analysis of Industry The industry is more complex than it appears. You are the best person to realize this fact and know first hand how tough it was to introduce this revolutionary product in drug market. As shown in the Appendix: The pharmaceutical drug market, physical drug distribution and benefit distribution are two interconnected channels which operate in the country. OES should consciously target the benefit distribution because that is where the key critical decisions are taken which impacts the cost of drug delivery to the end user.

This is where the decision of inclusion and non inclusion of branded patented drugs vs. generic drug is taken. Pharmaceutical industries are using three distinct strategies to