Pharmaceutical company performance improves when innovation and execution align

East Norriton, Penn., March 1, 2016. A study measuring the impact of pharmaceutical commercial operations on company performance finds that strategic investment in commercial innovation linked with an aligned and responsive culture of execution can produce positive results. The study, "What Makes More Better? An Exploratory Study on the Effects of Firm-Level Commercial Operations Attributes on Pharmaceutical Business Performance," appears in the current issue of the Journal of Medical Marketing.

Authored by George A. Chressanthis, Ph.D., Professor of Healthcare Management and Marketing, Fox School of Business and Management, Temple University, the independent study was funded through an unrestricted grant from TGaS Advisors, a benchmarking and advisory services firm for pharmaceutical operations. Eric M. Eisenstein, Ph.D., also at Fox, and Patrick A. Barbro, Ph.D., Rohrer School of Business, Rowan University, are co-authors.

Chressanthis says that today's pharmaceutical environment requires companies to think holistically from the earliest stages of clinical development about the value-based assessment of new drugs. The researcher concludes that "strategic investments in commercial operations can help companies bring drugs to market faster while clearly demonstrating value important to key stakeholders." Chressanthis compares the underlying culture required for this to a "fertile field" where innovation coupled with execution lays the foundation, noting they operate synergistically to affect business performance. "Companies that are commercially innovative but do not have the ability to execute strategic policies will not be effective. Likewise, companies that are commercially aligned but without innovative business strategies to execute will also not be effective," he says.

The study draws on TGaS Advisors' proprietary commercial operations dataset using anonymized data from 26 large, medium and specialty pharmaceutical companies and interviews with TGaS operations professionals. Findings and recommendations were developed independently of TGaS.

TGaS President Gary McWalters commented, "We commissioned this study as an investment in our commercial operations partners. It provides independent confirmation of what we've learned from more than a decade of engagement on the operational side and makes the case for strategic investment in innovation linked to execution."

According to Chressanthis, this is the first such independent research study on the effects of qualitative and quantitative measures of commercial operations on business performance. "The depth and breadth of the TGaS database, together with their qualitative insights, made the study possible," he says.