Shift in business models in pharmaceutical industry

Abstract: The following paper is devoted to the research about the shift in business models in the pharmaceutical industry. A fast changing business environment caused by a transformation of technology, communications and business itself, has created a new landscape for the pharmaceutical industry. The old business model built around the blockbuster drug development and production is not efficient any more. Pharmaceutical companies are shifting their business models towards defragmentation and risk aversion. The purpose of this paper is to analyze the shift in business models in the pharmaceutical industry through construction and comparison of the old blockbuster and alternative defragmented business models on the basis of the business model concept suggested by Osterwalder (2004).For the purpose of the deeper understanding of the researched issue, several in-depth interviews are held with pharmaceutical companies in Skåne region, Sweden.