An Overview of Pharmaceutical Companies and the Pharmaceutical Industry

The pharmaceutical industry is the industry involved in the development, the production, and the marketing of drugs that have been licensed by the relevant regulatory bodies for use as medicines. Pharmaceutical companies are also involved in the development, the production, and the marketing of medical devices and generic and brand medications. The top ten companies in 2008 according to sales were Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline, Novartis, Sanofi-Aventis, AstraZeneca, Hoffmann–La Roche, Johnson & Johnson, Merck & Co., Abbott and Eli Lilly and Company, in that particular order. The pharmaceutical industry is very old, with the earliest drugstores in the world dating back to the Middle Ages (there are records of Arabian pharmacists in Baghdad in 754 AD).

Regulation is very important in the pharmaceutical industry since it ensures that the drugs and medical devices produced are of the highest quality. Some of the regulators for drugs in the UK are the EUCOPE or European Confederation of Pharmaceutical Entrepreneurs, the EFPIA or European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations, the EphMRA or European Pharmaceutical Market Research Association (EphMRA), and the IFPMA or International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations. Approval usually follows years of testing in the lab by pharmaceutical companies and regulators, in vitro studies, in vivo studies, and clinical trials.

Each drug starts with research and development. The drug discovery & drug development process usually starts with serendipitous discovery or the isolation of the active ingredient from traditional remedies. There is intense competition in the industry and this has led to a rise in the development of ‘me too’ drugs, which are basically drugs that are made from compounds that are chemically-similar or that have the same mechanism of action as existing, approved drugs. An example of this is the production of many ED drugs after the production of Viagra. Pharmaceutical companies spend millions on marketing, the most common advertising methods being direct to consumer advertising, and consumer-directed broadcast advertisements.