藥品專利期過後行銷策略分析-以A公司為例

Abstract

在醫藥產業裡時常可以見到原廠藥專利期過後，學名藥進入市場產生價格競爭的狀況，在價格競爭的影響之下，原廠藥品營業額劇烈下滑，這樣的情況稱為”專利懸崖“，因此原廠藥商必須提早採取對應的策略以因應這樣的情況發生，避免專利到期後公司的營運受到影響。 個案公司為美國知名藥廠，個案藥品在2014年貢獻個案公司14億美元的營業額，是B肝藥品裡的領導品牌，這個個案研究主要探討的問題是個案公司在面臨專利到期後如何採取的行銷策略，與個案藥品在專利到期後為何仍然可以維持市場領先地位，以及台灣的全民健保如何影響個案公司行銷策略佈局。 本個案研究藉由SLEPT外部環境分析、五力分析與行銷組合分析等各個關鍵因素來歸納出專利期過後行銷策略的成功因素，期能提供品牌藥商面臨專利期過後在台灣面對市場競爭時兼具行銷學理與實務可行的策略架構。

In the pharmaceutical industry, it is not unusual to see the drugs go off-patent and become generic drugs. When the top selling drugs go off-patent within a short period of time, a serious issue called “patent cliff” arises opening opportunities for generic drug manufacturers. The major problem for branded drugs going off-patent is the fierce competition with generic drugs that may lead to the “price war” and rapid sales erosion, this is so called the “patent cliff”. The brand-name drug companies are at risk of losing billions in sales due to the patent cliff in the recent years as several blockbuster drugs will lose patent. Upon patent expiry, lower priced generic drugs may reduce the revenue for the brand-name drugs by as much as 90%. Therefore, pharmaceutical companies should start to plan for patent expiry as early as possible to cope with the coming of patent expiry of products. Case drug, one of the most blockbuster products in the case company, is going off-patent in 2015 in US. In the recent years, the case product has contributed more than 1.4 billion sales for the case company; furthermore, it has maintained the market leader position among all the hepatitis B drugs in the market. The strategic marketing is to identify of one or more sustainable competitive advantages a firm has in the markets it serves, and allocation of resources to exploit them. In order to study how a pharmaceutical company manages its strategies to face the issue of patent expiry, this case study firstly use strategic marketing analysis of the macro-environment and micro-environment factors that influence the strategic decision of the case company, then compare the strengthens and weaknesses of the case drug among all the hepatitis B drugs to better understand the competitive advantages of the case product. After the analysis of the external and internal situation of the case company, the strategic marketing of the case company has been examined to see how does the case company adjust its marketing strategies in the environment of National Health Insurance in Taiwan. Finally, the conclusion and suggestion of the marketing strategies that can be applied to deal with the patent expiry in Taiwan will be provided for the pharmaceutical companies in the similar scenario. These strategies include leverage the brand equity, enhance the customer loyalty, accelerate innovation development and defend the patent. The goal of this study is to create a theoretical and practical framework for the strategy planning for the pharmaceutical companies.