Innovation and Enterprise for Business Product Portfolio

Discuss about the Innovation and Enterprise for Business Product Portfolio.

Introduction

The company chosen for the report for analyzing the innovation portfolio is Alphapharm, a subsidiary company of Mylan, Inc. It is an Australian based generic drug manufacturing company headquartered in Sydney. Alphapharm exports its various ranges of generic medicines to fifty different countries of the world. The report contains innovation portfolio of the chosen pharmaceutical company along with its strengths and weakness in the respective field. The pharmaceutical industry is characterized as a technology intensive, knowledge-based industry that caters medicines, drugs and other products to the population of the country. Australian pharmaceutical industry consists of companies manufacturing generic and originator medicines, biotechnology firms and biomedical research. The production runs by the innovation of new concepts and products. Alphapharm belongs to generic drug manufacturing company having its reach across different countries worldwide. Apart from that, innovation portfolio management of the company is discussed along with bridging the gap in the strategy of innovation.

Present portfolio of innovation activity of the company

Portfolio management is defined as the mapping of innovation strategy of a particular organization for the meeting the scientific and balanced projects and programs while maximizing the value of innovation portfolio of the organization. Alphapharm also maintains innovation portfolio along with its good channel of distribution (Davila, Epstein and Shelton 2012). 4Ps of innovation are the innovative approach taken by the organization to increase brand awareness along with the growth of sales of its products. The pharmaceutical company is very famous in Australia regarding its good channel of distribution and quality products served in the market. The therapeutic innovation of the business mainly focuses into Anaphylaxis, Antiretrovirals, Cardiovascular, Respiratory, Dermatology and Central Nervous System.

Product portfolio of Alphapharm is described in the following diagram:

Figure: Product Portfolio of Alphapharm

(Source: Created by author)

Innovative Activities onto the 4P Framework

Product

The organization is like to invent many new fields of treatment through providing support and service towards specialty and general medicines. Treatment regimens often require patient to take three to more medicines and Antiretrovirals, which requires to be refrigerated. In many heated countries like Africa and India, refrigeration is scarce. Alphapharm is quite able to provide heat-stable version of Antiretrovirals medicine (Mylan.com.au 2016). The organization has innovated dry-powder drug-delivery platform system. Every drug of the company is approved by TGA. The registered drugs are the product of innovation of the enterprise. Apart from that, the organization provides emergency treatment for Anaphylaxis treatment. As it is a global company, the research, and development of the company is highly developed, and the medicines are supporting the demands of the market.

Process

Alphapharm has well integrated relationship with their suppliers. In this way, the organization is capable of getting high quality raw material at right time. It assists the organization to prepare effective medical drugs and medicines. At Alphapharm, every person has the ability make differences. From the people, who manufacture and develop medicines to the people, who sell it are all targeted to achieve mission critical role. All the manufacturers have a record of accomplishment towards delivering business goals within budgets and schedules (Nagji and Tuff 2012). This drives the improvement areas of the organization. Strong technical skills of the employees make them able to incorporate various new technologies to provide advanced treatment for the patients.

Position

In Alphapharm Pty Ltd, medical science has been entered with all its possibilities. The organization has made every impossible medical treatment to be possible. The patient can get any kind of medical treatment in anytime without facing much hesitation. This organization is the sole supplier of pharmaceutical benefits in Australia (Cooper 2013). The innovative medicines of the organization have come through difficult-to-manufacture and difficult to formulate products, which are helpful to treat severe diseases (Nagji and Tuff 2012). The organization is assumed to use most advanced technology in its treatment techniques.

Paradigm

Promotional activities of a pharmaceutical company are different from that of organizations of other sectors of industry. Mainly pharmaceutical companies are performing institutional sales. Sales person are appointed to visit retailers, institutions, doctors for selling the generic medicines of the enterprise. The organization has started to recruit talented employees specialized only with medical education. Apart from that, the organization constantly provides training to their employees so that they can serve towards the changing demand of the customers. Management of the organization maintains strong customer relationship management for bringing a shared value of the organization with the organization.

Figure 1: Innovation 4 Ps

(Source: Ding, Eliashberg and Stremersch 2013)

Strengths

The main positive aspect in this sphere is the presence of renowned scientists who are associated with the invention of new medicines in varied fields of science. Huge level of research and development has made the organization to bring innovation to medical treatment. The organization is also waiting for the approval of various face cream. Alphapharm is into designing bioequivalent versions of various medicines. It also creates modified versions of existing drugs to create product differentiation in the market (Kotler et al. 2015). Heat-stable drug products have helps many people of heated country to get their medicine in right time. Thousands of researchers, thinkers, and scientists of the company are working across the globe on solving the needs and complex challenges of the market along with meeting the demands of the marketplace that are not fulfilled earlier.

Weaknesses

Many fields of medical science are still untouched by the company. Financial crisis are the most challenging factor towards bringing innovation in Alphapharm. Approval of a drug or medicine is very tight from TGA. Many diseases are there in the world that does not have any medicines or drugs for recovery (Ding, Eliashberg and Stremersch 2013). The organization also not has any online system for interacting with customers, through it uses advanced technology in medical tratement. Alphapharm has not tapped some areas that have a scope in development of medicines in those fields of science. Distribution channel of this organization is weak in Australia compared to other countries. There is a lot of scope of growth of the company if the distribution channel is improved in the country. The strategic management department of the company sometimes is unable to take the right decision regarding innovation activities of the product portfolio.

Identification of Gaps

Various weaknesses can be identified with the innovation 4 Ps of the organization. Due to the lack of online interaction with the customers, often the customers cannot get their problem solved at right time. Various fields of medical areas are even now untouched by the organization.  The core area of growth of the company is new product development in the untapped field of medical science. Proper advertising strategies have not been taken by the organization. Thus, they are still on the ways of building strong brand value.

New targets of strategic innovation

Based on the gaps, targets are required for the company in strategic innovation. The enterprise has loopholes in the sphere of distribution of its products in Australia. It can achieve its ultimate mission in research and development by developing its overall channel of distribution in the company. There are many drivers of innovation that needs to be developed and nurtured for maintaining sustainability in the competitive market (Gassmann, Reepmeyer and von Zedtwitz 2013). Many competitors of Alphapharm in Australia are competing to capture a greater market share in the industry. However, there are many international competitors that the company is facing while penetrating its operations in the foreign market. Alphapharm must conduct extensive market research in different target markets to determine the position of the competitors along with the existing consumer demands (Ward and Peppard 2016). The organization should keep constant interaction with the customers to know the changing needs and demands of them. For example, it has to arrange frequent survey and interview on the customers experience so that it can know their flaws in business development.

The ever-growing portfolio of the pharmaceutical enterprise can include many spheres of medical sciences such as biologics, injectables, neurology, oncology, respiratory, gastrointestinal, pain management, orthopedics, etc. Acquisitions of different areas of sciences will enhance the ability of the company in formulating new products of a different branch of medical sciences (Schuhmacher et al. 2013). The research and development department must be reorganizing themselves in various new departments. As the organization has a global reach, so it should keep an online facility to directly interact with the doctors and administrative department. It will definitely act as competitive advantage for the organization over their competitors. Apart from that, new medical experts and scientists of the above mentioned specializations are to be recruited for developing new medicines according to the needs of the market (Ahmed et al. 2014). The management of the company needs to formulate new policies and strategies which would mitigate the gas pointed out in the above paragraph. New strategies are aligned to the marketing mix and the innovation portfolio of the company (Stros and Lee 2015). However, marketing strategies are also related to the product portfolio of the enterprise. With the improvement of the strategies of innovation, Alphapharm will also increase its range of goods. It will result to attract huge customer base apart from catering existing markets (Gordon 2012). Meeting the requirements of the industry as well as demands of the customers will enhance the productivity of the company. However, on meeting the targets of innovation, Alphapharm will acquire a significant position in the market.

Conclusion

The report discusses the innovation portfolio of the Australian pharmaceutical company. The innovation of the chosen pharmaceutical company is a vital aspect of overall development of the enterprise in terms of increased profitability and brand awareness in the marketplace. Australian pharmaceutical industry has many renowned businesses that have expanded their operations throughout the world. Internalization has a direct relation to the innovation. Product differentiation is the result of innovation of the research and development of a particular company in every sector of industries. Alphapharm on developing the field of innovation will reach the zenith of success within a short time. Recommendations are also provided which would help the organization to achieve its goals and objectives. Innovation is considered as the primary driver of growth in the field of the economic and commercial sector. It is also a vital requirement for the protection of intellectual property (IP) of drugs and medicines.

References

Ahmed, R.R., Sattar, I., Khoso, I. and Parmar, V., 2014. New product development: strategy & implementation mechanism based on primary & secondary data research in pharmaceutical industry. International Journal of Management, IT and Engineering, 4(5), p.152.

Cooper, R.G., 2013. Where are all the breakthrough new products?: Using portfolio management to boost innovation. Research-Technology Management, 56(5), pp.25-33.

Davila, T., Epstein, M. and Shelton, R., 2012. Making innovation work: How to manage it, measure it, and profit from it. FT press.

Ding, M., Eliashberg, J. and Stremersch, S. eds., 2013. Innovation and Marketing in the Pharmaceutical Industry: Emerging Practices, Research, and Policies (Vol. 20). Springer Science & Business Media.

Gassmann, O., Reepmeyer, G. and von Zedtwitz, M., 2013. Leading pharmaceutical innovation: Trends and drivers for growth in the pharmaceutical industry. Springer Science & Business Media.

Gordon, R., 2012. Re-thinking and re-tooling the social marketing mix. Australasian Marketing Journal (AMJ), 20(2), pp.122-126.

Kotler, P., Burton, S., Deans, K., Brown, L. and Armstrong, G., 2015.Marketing. Pearson Higher Education AU.

Mylan.com.au. 2016. Branded Products | Mylan. [online] Available at: http://www.mylan.com.au/en-au/businesses/branded-products [Accessed 10 Aug. 2016].

Nagji, B. and Tuff, G., 2012. Managing your innovation portfolio. Harvard Business Review, 90(5), pp.66-74.

Schuhmacher, A., Germann, P.G., Trill, H. and Gassmann, O., 2013. Models for open innovation in the pharmaceutical industry. Drug Discovery Today,18(23), pp.1133-1137.

Stros, M. and Lee, N., 2015. Marketing dimensions in the prescription pharmaceutical industry: a systematic literature review. Journal of Strategic Marketing, 23(4), pp.318-336.

Ward, J. and Peppard, J., 2016. The Strategic Management of Information Systems: Building a Digital Strategy. John Wiley & Sons.