Pharmaceutical industry cost containment strategies

To more fully understand the impact of managed care on the pharmaceutical industry, a look at managed care s cost-containment strategies and continued movement toward multiple payers will be presented first, followed by the influential market dynamics of increased competition and changing demographics. Concluding the section will be a discussion of how these factors have impacted the pharmaceutical industry s research and development priorities and product life cycles. 

In addition to the influence of a growing geriatric market segment on pharmaceutical industry research and development, each of the other managed care and market influences -cost-containment strategies, multiple payers and market competition - have collectively impacted pharmaceutical research and development. The pharmaceutical industry is highly... 

As pharmaceutical cost containment strategies touch upon the interests of many groups (industry, wholesalers, retailers, consumers, doctors, etc.), reactions sometimes amounting to forceful opposition are to be expected when such policies are proposed or implemented. Sometimes these reactions are based on misunderstandings which need to be countered with sound information. Fears as to the failure or possible adverse effects of a cost containment programme can for example often be allayed if it can be shown that similar measures have been successfully implemented, without doing harm, earlier in another country in a situation similar to one s own. 

In addition to cost-containment strategies, managed care is impacting the pharmaceutical industry through a continued movement toward multiple payers of healthcare. The make-up of the payer... 

There is intense economic pressure on the pharmaceutical industry by those who pay for its products to make the development of drugs more efficient and thereby reduce or at least contain costs. Industry executives ignore this clamor at their own peril. A widely embraced strategy to improve productivity is to integrate drug discovery and development by bringing company researchers from basic, preclini-... 

Disease management programs represent another pharmaceutical industry strategy to counter managed care cost-containment efforts. Offered by... 

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