Customer Reviews

Digital Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry

5 star:		(2)
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3 star:		(1)
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Although some of the information contained in the book is relevant to the industry today, I always find it a little frustrating when a book from 6 years ago can be given some new cover art and presented as up to date.

Bottom line here is that the editor has not even felt it necessary to update relevant statistics that are quoted and only infrequently has added new content. If you are happy with information that was new 6 years ago, then this is still a good source of information.

I work in one of the biggest pharmaceutical companies, in the marketing-e-business department. I can assure you that this is by far the best book about the pharmaceutical industry. It is not only about Information systems related areas, it covers too marketing, R&D, Human resources, finance, sales, etc. It has a great vision about the industry; I can tell you that book is "the bible" in our corporate headquarters. If you want to increase your knowledge about marketing in the industry, this is the book for you. The author is Editor of a leading journal, the "International Journal of Medical Marketing", teacher at INSEAD and a consultant for Pfizer, Merck, GSK, Aventis, Novartis and Roche, so he includes in this book information from top sources.

A "digital strategy in the pharmaceutical industry" is not at all the addition of an "e-business"-unit or -department to an existing organisational structure. It's much more about how sales & marketing, research & development and other functions can increase efficiency and effectiveness by making use of digital technology. At the same time, the technological challenges suggest to develop an integrated strategic approach instead of focusing on sales & marketing or other functions alone or in isolation. This book tells you why. And - to a certain degree - also how. Since few readers will be competent in all covered business functions, it is very helpful that the authors provide definitions and basic background information for all of them, before they outline the impact of digital technology and strategy. Finally, a great amount of examples from real business cases illustrate the theoretical framework.
To me this book is a very successful approach to present an integrated view of different business functions and IT in the pharmaceutical industry.