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Concept of Megabrands...
Empirical
evidence suggests that a few companies are scaling up their
marketing commitment to some products in a huge way - which
will make them difficult for most competitors to match.
Whereas in the past the market was dominated by a small
number of blockbusters,
a certain number of these drugs (and others in large pharma
pipelines) are now being geared up commercially to attain
a more 'awesome' status. These products, or 'megabrands',
were defined to IMS
HEALTH by Dr Tom McKillop, CEO of AstraZeneca. Dr McKillop
highlighted five potential
megabrands the company had in its pipeline at an R&D
meeting in London in December 1999. A certain mix of factors
are required for a therapeutic
category to sustain megabrands.
...
and Potential Consequences
According
to AstraZeneca, the development of megabrands by leaders
in the industry could lead to a raising of the competitive
stakes, and a new benchmark for what constitutes critical
mass. For companies large enough to absorb this risk the
chances of commercial success are huge - which may shed
new light on the motivation behind the current level of
pharmaceutical M&A activity. The brokers at Lehman Brothers
believe the megabrand concept may be one more driver for
industry consolidation. It is, however, unlikely that the
concept of megabrands will be relevant to small
companies with more humble salesforces.
01 Feb 2000, Copyright IMS HEALTH
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