Pharmaceutical brands: Do they really exist?

Abstract

This paper discusses the drug industry and its attitude towards products and brands. The paper uses data from both the pharmaceutical and consumer areas and analyses the top 20 pharmaceutical products and the corresponding therapy areas for the top pharma companies. It finds that the industry has been successful using product attributes and classical marketing techniques similar to other high-tech industries — the focus tends to be blockbuster products not brands. A significant factor here is that short patent protection means brand building does not protect long-term profits in the same way that it does for consumer brands. Three brand types are recognisable within the area: corporate; therapy area, and product. The paper concludes that drug brands do exist even though they are largely not managed as such, that lessons have been learned at a rudimentary level, but little research has been conducted into pharmaceutical brand management. It poses the question of whether or not it will be inherently risky not to actively manage brands in the future; recent direct-to-consumer advertising failures emphasise an urgent need to address this issue.

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