Threats and Opportunities for European Pharmaceutical Wholesalers in a Changing Healthcare Environment

The aim of this book is to identify the major drivers of change within the European healthcare systems and to evaluate risks and opportunities confronting pharmaceutical full-line wholesalers. These businesses are the most important link between pharmaceutical manufacturing and the point of sale; providing one-stop-shopping for healthcare professionals across Europe. While on the one hand European governments are interested to ensure broad access to healthcare provision for the general public with a high level of quality, they are on the other hand concerned with limiting cost increases and with the need to cap healthcare spending. In addition, the pharmaceutical industry faces a strong need to cut costs by outsourcing non-core activities and establishing new routes to the customer, often bypassing the established supply chain. Changing healthcare environments across Europe ask for new strategies of pharmaceutical wholesalers to be fit for the future. This book deals with the advantages that can be derived from the changing landscape of healthcare provision. Aging populations, markets in transition, outsourcing activities of manufacturers and legal changes provide the potential to turn threats into opportunities and further develop the business model of pharmaceutical wholesaling. Even with profound structural changes in healthcare systems, pharmaceutical wholesalers are provided with significant potential to remain a vital part of the pharmaceutical supply chain and to prosper in the future.