Management -Marketing Environment in Pharmaceutical Industry in Transition Countries

Analyzing the functioning of pharmaceutical companies, Campbell (2005) views the moving forces on the demand side and defines them through three key roles: physicians as prescribes, final consumers or patients, and organizations as payers that cover the complete or part of the costs of pharmaceutical products. The purpose of business ethics is to establish a productive dialogue of parties with conflicting interests through the development of moral integrity and responsibility to individuals, corporations and health, the welfare of the world of business and society at large. Business ethics is attempting to rebuild and strengthen the intrinsic sensitivity to issues of social value and the human understanding of modern business, as a possible answer to the open resolution of paradoxes. The way out of the labyrinth of the growing crisis can only be found if corporate culture activities are designed on the principles of responsibility and values such as trust, honesty, fairness and respect for human dignity. Social responsibility and ethical principles are becoming a business imperative, and the global idea of responsible business and sustainable development of moral management is becoming a priority of the transitional countries. This paper points out the great social and moral responsibilities of managers of the countries in transition, some of which required ethical and responsible behavior in carrying out business activities while leading healthcare companies, in order to preserve the personal values which a certain society fosters. The usual set of people in decision-making on the purchase of pharmaceutical products is divided into three key agents of demand on this market. Our target market is influenced by a set of external (macro-) environment factors, which are beyond the company’s control, at least not in the short term and directly. These factors could be classified into several groups: social and cultural, legal and political, economic, technological, natural and demographic environment. Between the external environment (creating the dispositions of the target market) and the target market it lays the mechanism of influence through variables that an organization can control, manifested as marketing mix instruments. With due appreciation of the key idea of marketing, the consumer/patient remains the central element, but their decisions to purchase and use pharmaceutical products (especially prescription drugs) are not independent; they are primarily determined by the influence of both prescribes and payers. All three actors on the demand side are influenced by a large number of (macro-) environmental factors, determining their process of information gathering, decision making and behavior on the pharmaceutical market. At the same time, designing marketing mix instruments, pharmaceutical companies strive to influence the agents on the demand side, in a complex competitive environment. Macro-environmental factors act as a specific ‘prism’, affecting directly and simultaneously the design of marketing mix (supply) and constituents on the demand side: prescribes, patients and payers. Pharmaceutical industry marketers must understand the influence of macroenvironmental elements on the target market’s decision-making process and, at the same time, incorporate the influence of these elements into the creation and delivery of value to consumers through an appropriate marketing mix.