Monday, October 8, 2012

CSR in Brand Name Pharmaceutical Manufacturing



The biggest brand name pharmaceutical companies are Pzier with 15.2% market share, Johnson& Johnson with 14.3% market share, Merck and Co. Inc. with 12.8% market share, and Bristol- Myers Squibb with 11.8% market share.  The overall industry revenue is $19.0 billion with an estimated annual growth rate of 0.4% from the year 2012 to 2017. "Although Brand Name Pharmaceuticals have proven resilient to the economic downturn, it has become vulnerable to threats from generic drugs."(IBISWorld, 2012, Industry at a glance). 

One way that brand name pharmaceuticals can remain in the good position that it acquired is through corporate social responsibility, where " the policies are being created voluntarily in order to secure a niche in a global market place where product liability is a key factor in determining success." (Global Pharmaceutical Industry [GPI], 2012). People feel more comfortable purchasing drugs from a credible source and one way that companies in the pharmaceutical industry can achieve said credibility is through transparency with the customer through corporate social responsibility. This will only help boost the image of the company so long as the medication is within itself effective and reliable, which gives them a competitive advantage over the generic pharmaceuticals.

Incidentally, the top three companies with the largest percentage of market share have extensive corporate social responsibility policies. Pzier has an integrity-based code of ethics that “spans from everything regarding how to ethically conduct research to reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a policy of corporate citizenship.” (GPI, 2012). This not only creates a sense of purpose other than profits within the company but can also be marketable to their customers, making them appear credible to customers.  Johnson & Johnson also have an integrity-based code of ethics that include both their political and social stand against child labor and outlines ethical research guidelines, also following in the environmental trend have implemented a plan to reduce their impact on the environment. (GPI, 2012).

CSR can assist even the already established pharmaceutical companies that they can gain market share and standing, including increasing revenue should they adopt and implement a corporate social responsibility policy reaffirming credibility to their customers and employees.




References

IBISWorld US. Industry Market Research- Brand Name Pharmaceutical

The Global Pharmaceutical Industry. International Trade and Contemporary

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