The pharmaceutical industry is one of the fastest growing and developing industries in the world today. With the ever advancing technology and manufacturing techniques, quality assurance has become the focus of regulatory bodies all over the world. The implementation of quality management systems (QMS) that ensures that quality is built into every step of the design and manufacturing process has been the focus of many pharmaceutical companies. With the implementation of quality systems, employee’s perception of those systems and overall quality standards of the organisation is very important in establishing the quality culture of the organisation. To benefit from sustainable quality systems the organisations must ensure that employees understand the importance of the systems and that employee’s take personal responsibility for ensuring that their functions are performed correctly the first time. FKMSA has invested in a QMS that seeks to integrate all quality issues. The quality system includes documentation, deviations, corrective and preventative action (CAPA), change controls and quality risk management (QRM) in the entire facility. This system is administered by the quality control department, but each department takes ownership for their quality issues with support and guidance from the quality unit. FKMSA also firmly believes that quality cannot merely rely on the quality control test results; every step of the production process has a quality aspect built in to ensure that quality standards are adhered to. Every employee is trained, assessed and deemed competent before they can perform their duties; this is to ensure that human errors are kept to a minimum. Employee’s perception of quality is an integral part of quality assurance and it is important for the organisation to know what the employees believe to be the company’s standards of quality.

The main objective of this study was to investigate factors contributing to employee turnover in the South African pharmaceutical industry and to suggest strategies to minimize it. Employee turnover is a persistent problem facing both public and private organizations in South Africa. In addition to the costs incurred when an employee resigns, losing employees results in a loss of knowledge, skills and experience. Numerous studies have been undertaken globally on this topic. However, this problem continues to adversely affect organizations in several ways. Schwab (1991) suggests that this is because there are no clear resolutions yet to this challenge. Based on literature review conducted, there is no study undertaken in South Africa attempting to address this problem. The purpose of this study was to identify factors contributing to high turnover rate of pharmacists in South Africa (the pharmaceutical industry in particular) and to recommend strategies to address this problem. A quantitative research approach was followed when addressing this problem. Literature review was conducted on employee turnover and a questionnaire was developed. The questionnaire was used as a measuring instrument. Following a non-probability, convenience sampling method, two pharmaceutical companies in Gauteng and one in the Eastern Cape were surveyed. The results were analysed by a statistician using Epi-info and stata software as tools for statistical analysis. The following factors were found to be key factors contributing to employee turnover in the pharmaceutical industry: (i) lack of career advancement opportunities, (ii) uncompetitive salary packages, (iii) perceived inequity reflecting leadership challenges, (iv) insufficient recognition for good performance, (v) stress, and (vi) insufficient retention strategies. An effective retention strategy should address all factors that may contribute to employee turnover. A retention strategy that combines competitive salary packages, opportunities for learning and career advancement, recognition, equity and support structures (to deal with stress), should be used in the pharmaceutical industry. This will assist in creating a motivating climate, which is a pre-requisite for job satisfaction and, in turn, employee retention.

A significant amount of pharmaceutical marketing literature is available. Most of this marketing has doctors, physicians and specialists as main target audience due to the fact that, historically, these medical professionals were the main pharmaceutical purchase decision makers. Pharmaceutical marketing literature has, historically, also been biased towards the private health sector for obvious reasons as the private health sector constitutes the minority of the pharmaceutical market but with a significantly enormous purchasing power than the public healthcare market, constituting the biggest pharmaceutical market in numbers. It is not surprising therefore that majority of pharmaceutical marketing models have been tailor made for the private healthcare market as the growing number of pharmaceutical companies compete for a piece of the small but extremely profitable private healthcare market. South Africa is no exception as it reflects exactly the same pharmaceutical landscape as described above. For growth purposes, pharmaceutical companies have been showing a continued interest in the public healthcare market in Africa as the vast numbers of the African population present an opportunity for pharmaceutical sales. The inspiration of this research study emanated from the realisation that, in order for pharmaceutical companies to take advantage of the looming African opportunity, there is very little literature on pharmaceutical marketing in the public health sector of which majority of the African market constitutes. This study therefore investigates the impact of marketing communication mix elements on pharmaceutical purchasing decisions for pharmaceuticals in the public health sector in South Africa. Personal selling, public relations and promotions are the marketing communications mix elements being investigated in this study as they are the most commonly utilised in the pharmaceutical industry. Therefore, the study aims to develop an understanding on which of the chosen marketing communications mix elements has the most influence on the pharmaceutical purchasing decisions in the context of the public health sector in South Africa. The study also aims to explore the causal effects of such influences in the public health sector in South Africa. The findings will be valuable to pharmaceutical marketers that are trying to tap in the public health sector market as it is different from the private health sector. The study employs more qualitative approach. A small sample was utilised from the public health sector in the Eastern Cape Province in South Africa. Semi structured interviews were used to collect data which was analysed using grounded theory data analysis methodology. Empirical results revealed that personal selling influences pharmaceutical purchasing decision the most and promotions the least. Mitigating factors were uncovered to assist in optimising the marketing communication efforts for marketers in this sector.

Financial analysis and methods, intercompany comparison, recomendation for management

Thesis - Marketing Communications in Pharmaceutical Industry - consists of two parts - theoretical and practical. The theoretical part presents the various attributes of marketing communication, together with the marketing mix. In detail, the work will focus on the 4P - product, price, distribution and marketing communication. Each of these attributes will be related to the specific environment of the pharmaceutical industry. In this section we outline the history of the pharmaceutical industry and learn the basic information about the State Institute for Drug Control. We describe the mission and activities of these organizations - Czech Association of Pharmaceutical Companies, Association of the Innovative Pharmaceutical Industry. The practical part focuses on the relationship between the pharmaceutical industries and medical experts. The aim is to determine compliance with codes of ethics of pharmaceutical companies, including ethical aspects of advertising / promotion in the Czech Republic.

Purpose: To investigate possible connections between an Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) system, such as Predix, and data driven Lean practises. The aim is to examine if an IIoT platform can improve existing practises of Lean, and if so, which Lean tools are most likely influenced and how this is.Design/Methodology: The paper follows a phenomenon-based research approach. The methodology contains of a mix of primary and secondary data. The primary data was obtained through “almost unstructured” interviews with experts, while the secondary data comprises of a comprehensive review of existing literature. Moreover, a model was developed to investigate the connections between the concepts of IIoT and Lean.Findings: Findings derived from expert interviews at General Electric (GE) in Uppsala have led to the conclusion that Predix fulfils the necessary requirements to be considered an IIoT platform. However, the positive effects of the platform on the selected Lean tools could not be found. Only in one instance improved Predix the effectiveness of a Lean tool. Overall, data analytic efforts are performed and let to better in-process control. However, these efforts were independent from the Lean efforts carried out. There was no increase in data collection or analytics due to the Lean initiative and Predix is not utilised for data collection, storage, or analysis. It appears that the pharmaceutical industry is fairly slow in adapting new technologies. Firstly, the high regulatory requirements inherent within the pharmaceutical industry limit the application of cutting edge technology by demanding strict in-process control and process documentation. Secondly, the sheer size of GE itself slows down the adoption of new technology. Lastly, the pragmatic approach of the top management to align the digital strategies of the various industries and thereof resulting allocation of resources to other more technologically demanding businesses hinders the use of Predix at GE in Uppsala.

This thesis focuses on the comparison and evaluation of two entry strategies of international pharmaceutical company Fagron on the Czech and Brazilian market. In the theoretical part the internationalization of companies and possible approaches to international business is summarized. I closely describe the most significant forms of entering foreing markets with emphasis on selected impacts of FDI to the receiving economy. Then I describe the basic analyses required to enter foreing market together with specifics of B2B markets and the specific scope of business of the company -- pharmaceutical compounding. After the introduction of company Fagron and its expansion strategy Buy-and-Build I proceed with the analyses of particular entry strategies on the selected markets with the emphasis on their strategic goals, specific impacts and meeting the goals. This part draws from carried out in-depth analyses of the selected markets, which were moved to the appendices due to the limited scope of work. In the last chapter the above-mentioned market entries are compared, with the focus on the most important similarities and differences, and subsequently evaluated.

The goal of this Masters Thesis is to analyze three selected industry sectors in the Czech Republic and in Germany. Concretely the industries in focus are engineering, motor vehicle manufacturing and finally pharmacy along with bio- and nanotechnology. Furthermore, factors limiting but also supporting the industry development are identified and described in the Thesis. In the Thesis, analytical instruments will be used, especially the SWOT analysis and benchmarking. The Thesis is mainly intended for managers, employees, consultants and all other direct or indirect interest groups of both Czech and German industry companies and their suppliers but also for potential investors who are deciding whether to enter a market in the CEE region.

Please read the abstract in the section 00front of this document / Dissertation (MSc (Chemistry))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Chemistry / unrestricted

Orientador: João Eduardo de Moraes Pinto Furtado / Dissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Instituto de Geociencias / Made available in DSpace on 2018-08-07T20:18:38Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 Radaelli_Vanderleia1977-_M.pdf: 1695703 bytes, checksum: b5fb9c7709eec560328997829b830c9c (MD5) Previous issue date: 2006 / Resumo: A presente dissertação trata da indústria farmacêutica e das transformações estruturais na sua cadeia de valor, que têm produzido impactos variados entre os atores e instituições que a integram. Centrado na análise das atividades tecnológicas, o trabalho busca entender em quais situações a descentralização rumo a países em desenvolvimento ocorre e em quais a centralização é reforçada. A conclusão ressalta que alguns padrões e condutas consolidados foram sendo alterados de modo a permitir que pequenas empresas passassem a integrar estratégias articuladas de pesquisas. Nesse novo quadro, a oferta e a demanda de conhecimento científico unem agentes com diferentes atribuições e recursos. Estratégias de outsourcing internacional mostram uma flexibilização relativa nas barreiras à entrada, o que possibilita em alguma medida, inserção de pequenas empresas em nichos tecnológicos específicos. No entanto, a pesquisa realizada com grandes empresas farmacêuticas mostra que iniciativas de descentralização de atividades tecnológicas ainda são hesitantes e pontuais. Estados Unidos, Europa e Japão detêm juntos a maior porção desses seletivos investimentos / Abstract: The present dissertation handle deals with to the pharmaceutical industry and the structural transformations in its chain of value, that have produced impacts varied between the actors and institutions that integrate it. Centered in the analysis of the technological activities, the work searchs to understand in which situations the decentralization route the developing countries occurs and in which the centralization is strengthened. The conclusion standes out that some consolidated standards and behaviors had been being modified in order to allow that small companies started to integrate articulated strategies of research. In this new picture, it offers and the demand of scientific knowledge joins agents with different attributions and resources. Strategies of outsourcing international show a relative flexibilization in the barriers to the entrance, what it makes possible in some measure, insertion of small companies in specific technological niches. However, the research carried through with great pharmaceutical companies sample that initiatives of decentralization of technological activities still are hesitates and prompt. United States, Europe and Japan withhold together the biggest portion of these selective invest / Mestrado / Mestre em Política Científica e Tecnológica