Chapter 2: Big Pharma’s Crippling Addiction and How to Cure It—Return to a Misspent Youth
The entire book is written for the layperson...
This is Chapter 2—Return to a Misspent Youth
If you missed Chaper 1, it can be found below:
I should also say, before you read Chapter 2, that the entire book is written for the layperson. If you have a decent working knowledge of supply chains and the pharma industry, then hopefully I haven’t oversimplified it to the point where it insults your intelligence.
Conversely, if you think it will be too scientific or technical—it’s not—even Joe Biden could understand it (well, I may be stretching the point there!).
So, why not dive in now:
2 Return to a Misspent Youth
It wasn’t always like this
It has recently struck me that the pharmaceutical industry for many people has always been the same as it is today. A trade journal reporter declaring “Pharma has traditionally been business-to-business” confirmed this realization. This is certainly not the case, and those of more mature years, such as myself, remember a different time. The reporter’s comment made me wonder how this perception occurred and how widespread it was. If the misconception is common, then I should explain.
When today’s drug companies were in their infancies, probably in the 1950s, things were very different. GlaxoSmithKline (then Glaxo) started by making powdered milk for babies. Beecham’s (now GlaxoSmithKline) was famous for its flu powders, Johnson & Johnson was famous for baby hair shampoo, and Novartis wasn’t even a twinkle in its grandfather’s eye. Blockbusters hadn’t been invented, and Big Pharma companies generally had clear views of the customer constituencies they were serving.