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Redefining Competition in the Pharmaceutical Industry: A Time for Choice
John Thompson and Jan Gugliotti
CSC Index
Cambridge, Massachusetts
I. Introduction
39
II. Embracing an Unknown Future
40
A. Coming to Terms with What You Can Be
41
B. The Role of Leadership in Change
43
I. Introduction
As this chapter is written, the health care industry is in upheaval. Congress is considering a number of health care reform options, any one of which will drive out marginal players in the insurer and direct-care provider segments and significantly worsen the earnings squeeze in the drug sector. Every day, headlines announce new alliances, mergers, consolidations, and spinoffs within the pharmaceutical and other health care sectors as organizations try to shore themselves against rapid external change.
Potential congressional action is the latest but certainly not the only factor contributing to chaos in what had long been a stable, profitable industry, seemingly immune to the normal pressures of competition. Pharmaceuticals may simply be the last sector of the U.S. economy forced to acknowledge that its old model of competitionthe search for and exploitation of blockbuster
