The pharmaceutical industry is a sector that has been undergoing a number of changes over the past few years. the most evident change is related to the increase in competition, resulting in a great number of mergers and acquisitions. In order to maintain its profitability and survive in this market, the main solution the companies found has been the development of new products. However, it is becoming even more difficult to enter the innovative molecules market, resulting in a high cost of development (about one billion dollars per product), and a long time in development. These products have been developed under an increased complexity degree, using high technology and complex industrial processes in production, resulting in a very high added value and, thus, a high cost. Another change that has occurred is that the pharmaceutical industries increased their focus on new therapeutic areas, particularly on hospital segments such as oncology. Market niches have also been used as an attractive alternative for new products. Traditionally, the main focus of direct communication for this market is the doctors, regardless of the related therapeutic area. Recently, however, other stakeholders such as the government, regulatory agencies, treatment paying sources, among others, have been playing an important role. In this competitive setting, communication has been essential for the companies, because its effectiveness is becoming an even more strategic differential allowing their objectives to be reached.
This paper provides a comprehensive description and definition of the eBusiness landscape, how it affects healthcare, and opportunities created in the health industry and specifically in diabetes care. Marketing and sales managers are bombarded with hype about eCommerce, but much of the information is either too technical or presented by enthusiasts with a vested interest. The Internet is indeed not only a great opportunity as a new sales channel, but also contributes to improving the overall effectiveness of marketing communications, sales processing and customer service. Unfortunately, it can also be a way of wasting a lot of money. While one cannot ignore the potential of the Internet to add value to your companyâs sales and marketing activities, at the same time it would be unwise to expect eMarketing to be a panacea to cure a faltering marketing or sales strategy. The question is how to separate the hype from the real issue and how eBusiness can fit into the overall strategy of the companyâs marketing and sales strategy.
Estimations of the potential market volume for new products should be developed from clinical and epidemiological data (number of patients) as a basis, rather applying straightforward estimations of sales volumes. The goals of the study presented here were twofold: Estimate the number of patients suffering from specific fungal infections Develop an operating procedure to estimate the incidence and prevalence figures for systemic mycosis for published clinical and epidemiological data. The technical difficulty was to put the pieces of information together in an appropriate manner, in order to obtain reliable and reproducible data. As a part of the project some operating procedures for the retrieval, selection and documentation (single item references) were established. To ensure the best possible quality of data, the estimation and forecasting of mean lower and upper bound for data values was required. Some basic guidelines for data selection and data modelling were developed. The database software was chosen with respect to easy handling, updating and viewing of data.