New Product Launch: How to introduce innovative pain medication in a high competitive market

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry is extremely fast-paced and competitive, especially among generic pharmaceutical companies where copying originators and price battles are the norm. Competition is becoming so intense in the generic pharmaceutical market that companies must pursue new and innovative forms of growth. This dissertation aims to explain why generic pharmaceutical companies operating in the highly competitive over-the-counter medication market should invest in the development of innovative products as an effective mean towards improving their market position and growth rates. Along these lines, this dissertation uses the example of Medochemie (a multinational generics pharmaceutical company) and its successful launch of DUOMAX (new product: pain medication) to demonstrate how generic pharmaceutical companies should develop and introduce innovative products in those markets. In particular, DUOMAX’s development process and launch is reviewed and the most important stages of the development process are analysed. Based on the results of the analysis, a set of recommendations is developed discussing why and how companies in a very competitive market should introduce highly innovative.

DUOMAX is a new pain medication introduced by the Multinational Cypriot Pharmaceutical company Medochemie in Cyprus. Medochemie is the largest pharmaceutical manufacturing company in Cyprus operating since 1976 selling its generic medicines in Europe, the Middle East, Africa, the Far East and the Americas. The company has 21 core offices and a network of trusted agents and partners allowing it to operate in 107 countries. Today, Medochemie has thirteen manufacturing plants and facilities. Nine are in Cyprus, one in the Netherlands, and three in Vietnam. Medochemie operates in accordance with the strictest quality standards and in full compliance with European guidelines. In 2021, Medochemie decided to take a risk and launch DUOMAX in Cyprus, a new innovative pain medication. The new products’ success in the Cypriot market, encouraged Medochemie to start plans of launching the new product in several other countries around the world and transform the product to a range of pain products with different forms. DUOMAX exceeded all the objectives for the first year, such as sales volume, market share and weighted distribution. This work studies the development and launch processes of DUOMAX, reviewing the key stages that made it a successful product.