Approaching the pharmaceutical patent cliff: How promoting different product portfolios of generic and branded companies, post the mergers and acquisitions, affects the overall company revenue?

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Specialism:3

Title:3

Introduction:3

Research Interest:5

Relation to previous research (Theoretical Framework):5

Proposed Methods:10

Reflections:12

Conclusion:14

Timetable:15

References1

Appendices - Some Interview questions:6

Specialism:

General MBA

Title:

Approaching the pharmaceutical patent cliff: How promoting different product portfolios of generic and branded companies, post the mergers and acquisitions, affects the overall company revenue?

Introduction:

Mergers and Acquisitions M&A are one of the common strategic deals and alliances between companies across the globe (Satish & Lalit, 2008).The study aims to answer how promoting different product portfolios from generic and branded nature, post-M&A, can affect pharmaceutical companies' revenues and avoid flat-profit threat throughout the “patent-cliff”.

There is growing concern that global pharmaceutical industry is facing the challenges of “patent cliff” which refers to as a large loss of revenues due to expiring patents. The patent cliff is generally defined as the large and sharp loss of profits due in the pharmaceutical products due to expiring of patents. It is generally regarded as an industry-wide expiration of the patents of the number of products and drugs, in particular the blockbuster drugs, which provide a combined of $250 billion in annual sales conceived to be gone off-patent by 2015 and eventually creating a life-threatening and compelling situation for many of the companies in the pharmaceutical industry (Lines, 2012; Srivastava, 2012). Also, large companies in the pharmaceutical industry have made or intending to make strategic decisions to combat the anticipated losses of patent cliff. Despite the growing interest in exploring the patent cliff and how promotional efforts could replenish the revenues, there is still dearth of much research on the specific. In essence, it is felt that an exploratory study is needed which could provide insights into the role of promotion in improving the revenues of merged pharmaceutical firms in the midst of pharmaceutical patent cliff.

The central research question is:

RQ: How promotion of different product portfolios of generic and branded companies, post the mergers and acquisitions, can affect the overall company revenue and replenish flat revenues yearning for more productivity in the midst of patent cliff?

The role of promotion, as part of affecting the company's revenues affected by pharmaceutical cliff, will be looked by collating the available literature review on the relevant studies. This will eventually provide insights into the following sub-questions:

1) How did pharmaceutical patent cliff affect company's revenue?

2) How promoting different portfolios is related to company's revenue?

Primary data gathered from the empirical research will help answer:

3) Why did the company choose M&A to overcome threat?

5) How could M&A replenish productivity and improve revenues to overcome threat?

6) What are the significant drivers of promotion of product portfolios of generic and branded companies?

7) What is the role of promotion in product portfolios of generic and branded nature, post M&A, and how it could replenish the productivity and improve the revenues of pharmaceutical firms in midst of pharmaceutical patent cliff?

Research Interest:

I work in the pharmaceutical industry and noticed many M&A taking place recently to overcome the “patent ...