This growth is mainly driven by the expansion of healthcare access and economic development in these countries.

However, the Asian pharmaceutical industry is facing many of the same structural issues that have been brewing for several years in developing countries, such as changing buyer behavior, increasing consumer activism, heightened pressure from payers, and fewer new product launches. Asian markets are not immune to these challenges—especially with the current economic downturn, which will only exacerbate them. Already the bleak economy is fueling intensified market competition in the region as multinational companies look toward Asia for opportunities to compensate for slowing growth in the West. 

As such, it is more important than ever for Asian companies to address the multiple issues constraining their industry. And as pharmaceutical organizations in the Asian markets tend to be largely marketing or sales organizations, these companies may achieve substantial improvement by optimizing these models. This report takes a fresh look at the current operating models of Asian pharmaceutical organizations, concentrating on several key areas: the marketing and sales model, the commercial model, strategic workforce planning, and customer and market strategy. 

Recommendations include:

Employing the lean-sigma approach in a sales and marketing setting to drive more productive and better quality stakeholder relationships while eliminating waste and unnecessary cost. 

• Using marketing ROI as a vehicle to help close the loop between campaign execution, measurement, and overall strategy and planning and to help drive continuous improvement. 
• Evolving from a simple reach-and-frequency approach with physicians to a more sophisticated model dependent on customer value and segmentation. 
• Employing strategic workforce planning to analyze and forecast the talent a company will need to achieve its business objectives. 
• Matching and measuring cost against customer segments and addressing issues around customer profitability, lifetime value, and price sensitivity. 
• The report draws on examples from some of the top players in the pharmaceutical industry, showcasing case studies and best practices from around the world.