TITLE:
Understanding the Factors that Impact the Pre-Launch Phase and New Product Launch Excellence in the Pharmaceutical Industry
AUTHORS:
Magdy Rabea
KEYWORDS:
New Product Launch, Pharmaceutical Marketing, Pre-Launch Phase, Launch Excellence, Launch Readiness
JOURNAL NAME:
American Journal of Industrial and Business Management,
Vol.12 No.1,
January
30,
2022
ABSTRACT: Background: The pharmaceutical industry began to rely heavily on new product development looking for achieving an excellent NPL process.
That’s why, pharmaceutical marketing started to emphasize the pre-launch phase
for the pharmaceutical products and began to apply many strategies, tactics,
and activities to ensure launch readiness and successful market understanding
and acceptance. Existing literature that elicits theoretical and empirical evidence regarding the pre-launch phase and its impact on the launch readiness is limited. Purpose: This
research aims to identify the key success factors that impact the
excellence of the new product launch process in the pharmaceutical industry. Methodology: A theoretical framework was
developed from existing relevant literature
then tested and empirical research was conducted using qualitative analysis technique via interviews with
experts from the pharmaceutical field to get their insights. Findings: The findings indicate that there
are 7 factors that are impacting the excellence of the NPL process. These factors are
cross-functional collaboration, market analysis, pre-launch medical activities, pricing strategies, early
access programs, human resources allocation and supply chain management strategies. In addition to that the excellence measures have been stratified into qualitative measures, like
customer acceptance and gaining high
advocacy level of KOLs, and quantitative measures that represent the financial success of the drug in terms of rapid
market penetration, gaining MS and the magnitude of MS gain. Limitations: The sample size was small and such a small sample size directed the sampling technique to
be purposive sampling which may impact the
representation of the total population. Moreover, the empirical data were influenced
by the existing factors supposed by
literature. Practical Implications: Planning
and emphasizing on prelaunch phase is crucial for the excellence of NPL. Moreover, considering the 7 mentioned factors is important for
ensuring the qualitative and quantitative success of the new product introduction to
the market.