What management levers can pharmaceutical executives use to frame their thinking around sustaining drug innovations in their companies?
The discovery and development of life-saving drugs have been central to improving health worldwide. However, the state of pharmaceutical innovation has been recently challenged due to falling industry outputs, with breakthrough therapies remaining elusive for many companies. Sustaining drug innovations is a top priority for pharmaceutical executives. The research examines existing literature to explore patterns and trends in managing the sustainability of drug innovations in the pharmaceutical industry. An initial survey of articles on general, non-pharmaceutical industry specific strategies for sustaining innovation provides a definition for sustained product innovation. Strategic themes such as organizational structure and culture, a firm’s ability to adapt to changes, the role of knowledge and technology management as well as alliances and networks among firms are discussed. A brief history of strategic innovation in the pharmaceutical sector provides context in building a way to frame practitioner and researcher thinking around levers of management strategies that can be used to understand and sustain drug innovations at the firm level. Findings reveal that pharmaceutical companies which adapt their organizational culture, knowledge and technology levers to the cycles of scientific advances within the constraints of their regulatory and market environments are most likely to succeed. These levers of management strategies seem to be affected by the firm’s absorptive capacity and its ability to form strategic alliances with other organizations.
Authors: Ramil Cabela
Link: https://doi.org/10.28945/3946
Cite as: Cabela, R. (2018). What management strategies can a pharmaceutical company implement to sustain innovation? Muma Business Review, 2(2). 21-36. https://doi.org/10.28945/3946