Strategies Adopted by Pharma Companies to Stay Sustainable in Current COVID Context

Abstract

The pandemic has disrupted the normalcy of industries around the world and one of the main industries that had a huge say in how the world fights against the coronavirus pandemic is the pharmaceutical industry. As the manufacturers of products vital to the health of people during these, the industry had a huge burden to deal with. Not only was there an increased demand for medications to manage the patients affected by the virus, but also the urgency to develop a vaccine on a global scale to break the chain of the spreading pandemic. Pharmaceutical companies had to rethink many of their traditional strategies and adopt new ones to rise to these challenges. The most important one of these was to reduce the time take to develop the vaccine. Companies like Pfizer and Moderna had to use the help of real-world data, analytics, and artificial intelligence to speed up the process. In addition to this, companies had to focus on new ways such as digital and social media marketing to promote their products. The issue of the pharmaceutical companies' supply chain was also brought into focus early in the pandemic due to a shortage of raw materials and companies had to take measures to improve the efficiency of their operations. Many companies were also thinking of their opportunities in the post-pandemic world by acquiring innovative analytics firms and pharmaceutical companies working on promising molecules. Many of these adoptions will become permanent in the industry and there will also be an increased focus on issues like climate change, flexible work, and more involvement of patients and doctors in the development of new products. This project has allowed me to learn about the workings of the pharmaceutical industry and the new trends which will be essential in the post-pandemic world. It will be crucial for management students like me who aspire to work in the industry to get acquainted with these strategies.