Drug Information Journal - March 2009 - (Page 123) MEDICAL INFORMATION 123 Richard E. Whitehead, BS Medical Affairs, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, Rockville, Maryland Lisa Kochan Lomma, RPh, PhD Medical Affairs, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, Rockville, Maryland Quynh-Van N. D. Tran, PharmD, BCPP Medical Affairs, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, Rockville, Maryland Yen Krystal Miao, PharmD Medical Information, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Plainsboro, New Jersey Andrei Pikalov, MD, PhD Medical Affairs, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, Rockville, Maryland Key Words Medical information; Pharmaceutical alliance; Medical communications; Business partnership Correspondence Address Richard E. Whitehead, Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc, 2440 Research Blvd., Rockville, MD 20850 (email: richard.whitehead@ otsuka-us.com). Presented in poster form at the Drug Information Association 41st Annual Meeting, June 28, 2005, Washington, DC. A Pharmaceutical Alliance in Medical Information: Lessons Learned in the Life Cycle The medical information department within a pharmaceutical company functions to provide concise, consistent, and appropriate information and customer service to external and internal customers, while maintaining effective and quality-controlled processes. These medical information departmental goals become more challenging when two companies form a partnership, because of the complexity of additional staff members with varying goals and objectives involved in joint venture projects. The objective of this article is to review how two medical information groups function within a pharmaceutical alliance, and examine changes in the partnership that occurred in the different stages of the drug product life cycle. This is the first published article on the late-phase maintenance of a pharmaceutical alliance in medical information. INTRODUCTION An alliance is defined as a contractual asset pooling or resource exchange agreement between firms and has become a significant business relationship within the pharmaceutical industry (1). From 1988 to 2003, there was a steady increase in the number of pharmaceutical alliances, and additional growth is still expected in the formation of new alliance partnerships (2,3). In particular, these alliances have grown in popularity due to several key reasons, including (a) the ability to gain fast access to technology, knowledge, or skills located outside their group; (b) the opportunity to fill gaps in a company’s drug portfolio; (c) to share financial risks for projects too costly for one company or to increase the overall scale of projects by pooling resources; and (d) the utilization of established markets, or company infrastructure, within a new region (4–7). Despite the rising number of new alliances forming, it is also important to note the high rate of failed alliances. Numerous surveys on alliances have found that 50–70% of alliances in every industry do not meet the expectations of one or both firms (8). Not surprisingly, the resulting dissolution of the poor alliance is associated with enormous financial costs, as well as the potential damage to each company’s image. In general, the most common reasons cited for alliance failure include poor communication, product failure, market change, having a partner that is not a good cultural or strategic match, and undefined roles for each firm (Figure 1). Of these varied factors, it has been reported that most alliances seem to fail due to controllable factors, such as poor communication (8,9). Extensive literature has been published on forming alliances as well as failed partnerships including how companies should approach prospective new alliances or manage established alliances. However, literature on forming alliances, including the early phase of a partnership among specific departments such as medical information within pharmaceutical companies, is limited (10,1 As of November 1). 2007, our literature search yielded no published articles on a medical information experience in late-phase alliances. Therefore, we present an example of medical information groups from two companies in a partnership and discuss the issues associated with forming and continuing an established alliance. Last, we discuss how the roles and responsibilities may change from the initial formation of the alliance through the stages of the product life cycle. S TA G I N G O F T H E L I F E C Y C L E For the purposes of this report, we determined the stage of the life cycle of the product based Submitted for publication: January 4, 2008 Accepted for publication: July 2, 2008 Drug Information Journal, Vol. 43, pp. 123–129, 2009 • 0092-8615/2009 Printed in the USA. All rights reserved. Copyright © 2009 Drug Information Association, Inc.
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