Healthcare in Transition:Threat or Opportunity for Pharmaceutical Wholesalers in Europe

Inhaltsangabe:Introduction: Tradition and Change: Many of the well established Western European pharmaceutical wholesalers are companies with strong local traditions and roots dating back for several decades and more. GEHE Pharma Handel GmbH, one of the top pharmaceutical wholesalers in Germany, was celebrating its 175th birthday in 2010. AAH Pharmaceuticals Ltd., the UK’s leading distributor of pharmaceutical and healthcare products, was established in 1923, and Herba Chemosan Apotheker-AG, Austria’s largest pharmaceutical service and trading company, was established in 1916 as a cooperative from pharmacists for pharmacists. But having years to add does not equal getting old, as we will see in the course of this study. The times of transformation free eras have long gone, stability is not the norm anymore and the challenges being faced today are completely different. The globalisation of markets and competition has forced and still ‘is forcing firms to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and prosper but also to merely survive’. For many reasons, which will be detailed throughout this study, pharmaceutical wholesalers across Europe have been facing the need for improvements to secure sustainability and growth. In addition, ‘there has been significant consolidation of pharmaceutical wholesalers in Europe … affecting not only the distribution of market share but also the strategic orientation of the surviving firms’. Healthcare in Transition: Not only within the European Union but also across the entire OECD countries, healthcare is one of the largest industries with a dominant position in terms of job creation and a dynamic force in terms of innovation. Despite significant achievements in the health status of populations, concerns prevail on how resources are used in healthcare and how to guarantee an efficient and effective use of modern medicine. The weight of healthcare expenses in relation to GDP has increased the demand to harmonise internationally different definitions and improve the cross-national comparability of data on healthcare expenses. Consequently, the OECD has developed the ‘System of Health Accounts’. This manual provides a common framework and supports the international comparison of healthcare data across countries and over time. A combination of medical progress, demographic changes and shifting social expectations are the major drivers of increasing health expenditures in developed countries. Within the EU-15, [...]