Astrazeneca Executive Summary

When a pharmaceutical company creates a new drug, it has to go through the FDA and is required to submit a New Drug Application (NDA) to the FDA. The FDA reviews the application to assure that there is an objective proof that the proposed drug is safe and effective. If the

U.S. based companies hold rights to most of the world’s rights on new medicines and holds thousands of new products currently being developed. As of 2012, the industry helps support almost 3.4 million jobs in the U.S. economy. It is also one of the most heavily R&D based industries in the world. In the United States, the environment for pharmaceuticals is much friendlier than other countries around the world in terms of pricing ability and regulations. Both the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology industries have experienced significant growth in the past year with year-over-year increases of 13.02% and 34.69% respectively. It is an even more striking when looking at the past five years considering both have beat out the S&P 500 with pharmaceuticals increasing an additional 31.44% and the biotechnology sector besting an astonishing 269.3% more return than the

Extremely risky drug discovery and development, lengthening development times which increase development cost, return on investments, and generic competitors.

Summary: In terms of total sales, Pfizer is the world’s largest pharmaceutical company that creates products that serve approximately 150 million people worldwide and sales of approximately $50 billion in 2009. Formed in 1849 as a chemicals business, it has realigned itself to become the world’s leading research based pharmaceutical company and has produced drugs such as penicillin, Lipitor, Viagra, Detrol, and Geodon and thousands of others throughout its history. Focused now on expanding its international offerings, it looks to China, India, and Russia as high potential markets. In addition to human pharmaceuticals, Pfizer has diversified into the animal pharmaceutical market that has augmented sales and profitability to

Drug companies claim most of their profits are reinvested to develop new drugs, yet the industry has refused to show government auditors its books (Clemente, 2004). In addition, pharmaceutical companies do not acknowledge the financial contribution of the government which funds research with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the National Cancer Institute, and other public agencies. "The Federal Government, mainly through the NIH, funds about 36% of all U.S. medical research. . . Of the 21 most important drugs introduced between 1965 and 1992, 15 were developed using knowledge and techniques from federally funded research" (Barlett & Steele, 2004). Pfizer 's profits of $9.1 billion for 2002 were 28 percent, twice which of General Electric, nine times more than Wal-Mart and 31 times more than General Motors (Barlett & Steele, 2004). "Drugmakers ' net profit margins averaged 19 percent last year vs. 7.5 percent for all the companies in the S&P 500. The seven largest U.S. drugmakers made $31.2 billion last year" (Gibbs, 2003). This supports the findings of a recent online survey conducted by Weiss Ratings, Inc.: "forty-two percent of consumers polled blame pharmaceutical companies ' excessive profits for high prescription drug costs" ("Drug," 2004).

The management team at the over-the-counter cold medicine (OCM) group of Allstar Brands is looking to utilize revenue generated by Allround to help fund new opportunities in emerging markets. Therefore, it is critical that Allround maintain its market-leading position in terms of market share, profitability, and sales in order to fund these new initiatives.

But this is not necessarily true. Western governments are usually generous about funding drug industry research. These governments also allow the drug companies to market discoveries and new drugs that are produced in government and university laboratories. The most expensive aspect of producing a drug is the pre-clinical research, which is performed by the government and universities, not the drug companies.

Interestingly enough, there were some influences in the external environment that would affect the relationship with Astra. Much like other industries in 1990s and early 2000s, the pharmaceutical industry responded to the challenges of globalization and smaller companies merged to form large conglomerates to create worldwide strength. (Kyriazis and Swayne) Astra merged with Zeneca, increasing the international exposure of the new merger as the seventh largest pharmaceutical company in the world. In such a situation, AstraZeneca had Colazide low on their list of priorities and attempted to return the licensing to Salix. This would require some adjustments and avoidance of legal implications on the part of AstraZeneca, which led to their payment of Salix’s full contract and lending for acquisition of another partner.

The Pharmaceutical industry has been in the spotlight for decades due to the fact that they have a reputation for being unethical in its marketing strategies. In The Washington Post Shannon Brownlee (2008) states, “We try never to forget that medicine is for the people. It is not for the profits. The profits follow.” This honorable statement is completely lost in today’s world of pharmaceutical marketing tactics. These tactics are often deceptive and biased. Big Pharma consistently forgets their moral purpose and focuses primarily on the almighty dollar. Big Pharma is working on restoring their reputation by reforming their ethical code of conduct.

This paper will research the Product recall involving the Drug Company known as Merck, who produced the drug Vioxx use to treat osteoarthritis, and acute pain in adults. Looking at the relationships Merck had with government and lobbyist one can see what actions the drug company may have taken to lead them to this recall. In Addition, This paper will look at the actions Merck took in the approval process and recall of their drug. Using all information provided on this case this paper will decide whether Merck was ethically correct in bringing the drug to market and if they took the right steps in recalling it. Finally I will discuss the other stakeholder responsibilities and provide solutions to prevent this from happening in the future.

The Pfizer case provides an introduction to external analysis. The case highlights the pharmaceutical industry, which has enjoyed extraordinary long-run profitability. The case also demonstrates how broad changes in broad environmental factors (i.e. demographics, technology, culture, etc.) have an impact on industry competition. The case is not especially complex, so it is not overwhelming as a first case.

This weeks documentary videos on The New Medicine were informative, interesting and highlighted several thought provoking topics. According to Dr. Brian Berman of the University of Maryland School of Medicine defines integrative medicine as the practice of medicine that emphasizes the therapeutic relationship between the caregiver and the patient, which takes into account of the whole person. (TheNewMedicine) It is not just about root-cause or evidence base medicine any longer, long gone are the days where patients were not as engaged with their care plans and clients were less interactive. In addition, due to the increase of technology patients have become more informed about the practices that benefit and thwart organizational success through

The costs of capital and capital structures for Pfizer Inc. and its two competitors Merck & Co. Inc. and Johnson & Johnson in the pharmaceutical industry are analyzed in this memo.

Group President, Worldwide Biopharmaceuticals Businesses, 2006-2010 Led commercial businesses in Europe, Canada, Latin America, Africa and Middle East Regions, 2000-2006 Led Latin America and Canada

* Patent Expiration - in the next four years, the two highest sales producing pharmaceutical products will go off patent. Patents on Merck’s Cozaar and Singulair will expire in February 2010 and August 2012, respectively, exposing about $8.2 billion worth of sales to generic competition. This equates to about 35% of Merck’s forecasted revenue in 2012 [and 29% of 2009 revenues].