Question

Please answer the following questions for the company Pfizer.

1. Research what strategic alliances your firm has enter in the past three years. If there are several of these, choose the three you identify as the most important for further analysis. Based on company press releases and business journal reports for each alliance, what do you find to be the main reason the firm entered these alliances?

2. Do you think each of the three alliances achieves the original intent and therefore is successful? Why or why not?

3. Does your firm have an identifiable alliance management organization? Can you find any evidence that this organization improves the likelihood of success for these alliances? What responsibilities does this alliance management organization have in your firm?

Answer 1

1) Strategic Alliance is an important tool for a company to achieve its overall objective growth. It is mostly entered into keeping in mind the benefit of both parties involved in this case being a pharmaceutical company Pfizer as entered into most strategic alliances for purposes of research and development. research and development is the most important factor for the success and continued growth of a pharmaceutical company. Pfizer clearly States on their website their opinion that strategic partnership in early stage opportunities is a mission of our effort to deliver on the promise of better health and longer lives.

The collaboration between Pfizer and Sangamo for development of zinc finger protein gene therapy standard example of the methodology of strategic alliances formed by Pfizer. The collaboration is in the highly futuristic field of gene therapy and clearly exhibits the future growth aim of Pfizer. Pfizer has worked with Sangamo earlier also gene therapy products for hemophilia A. Under the terms of this agreement Sangamo will identify patience with the gene deficiency and Pfizer will be responsible for the development manufacturing and marketing of the product after completion of successful trials. Pfizer will award and initial payment to Sangamo for the same and will also bear the burden of all operational costs related to the research and trials.

Pfizer entered into an agreement with Basilea Pharmaceuticals Limited to develop and commercialize Cresemba, which is the latest antifungal medicine what treatment of serious infections associated with advanced HIV and cancer. This alliance is clearly one aimed at growth through expansion of market and customer base. Pfizer through the terms of this agreement will have exclusive development distribution and marketing rights over the product. It will also become exclusive marketing authorization holder for the entire Asia Pacific region and China Pfizer already holds exclusive commercialization rights for the product in most of Europe including United Kingdom. therefore it is very clear that Pfizer utilizes its leadership in the Pharmaceutical sector to attract strategic alliances which prove to be very lucrative in the long run and also help it maintain its supremacy. Another Tagline of Pfizer, working together for a healthier world denotes the well-planned and intelligent use of strategic alliances to help surge ahead in both the major areas of pharmaceuticals that is research and development and market share through both maximizing area and penetration.

Pfizer entered into an Alliance with Bristol Myers Squibb Company to unveil Real world data analysis associated with oral anticoagulant in atrial fibrillation. This alliance is obviously aimed at another very important factor for pharmaceutical companies which is more intangible in terms of profitability. We are all very well aware of the side effects of most allopathic drugs and we only have to look into history of any major Pharmaceutical giant to understand the massive impact that negative side effects of even one of its marketed products can have. Drug recall is an option but can have serious long-term implications for the company due to the products itself being highly sensitive and having ability to even cause death. Consideration of this it is very important for a pharmaceutical company to have sufficient protection against it been labelled irresponsible and the research conducted in substantial to avoid search issues strategic Alliance for researching effectiveness of a drug and releasing combined findings protects the company from being singled out for legal action. It also ensures that the data achieves more credibility as it has been checked and analyzed by two different organizations.

2) Which of the three alliances definitely achieve the original intent and is highly successful. intent in the first Alliance with Sangamo is for the purpose of research and development and the subsequent successful trial and release of the drug confirm this. The second alliance with Basilea force for growth group successfully establishing a presence in international markets and controlling competition at the same time by securing exclusive rights for marketing products. The third alliance was for combine research through Analysis of data available with Medicare and hence was aimed at improving credibility of the research as well as affording protection against blanket action on the company in case of complications resulting out of side effects of the drugs.

3) Pfizer definitely has an identifiable alliance management system in place and as mentioned earlier this is clearly visible from the statements on the website. Pfizer definitely takes alliances very seriously and through perfect planning has formulated a strategy for managing these alliances which will help it to achieve organizational goals of remaining a leader in the Pharmaceutical sector, of providing better health and longer life to humans, and continued development and innovation to manage and control diseases. The very fact that Pfizer enters into repeated alliances with the same Alliance partner is proof of its excellent management of alliances resulting in satisfaction and growth for both partners as well as benefiting the world at large. The responsibility of any Alliance management firm in an organization is to ensure that the alliance entered into is relevant to the long-term goals of the company and in what way the alliance will help achieve them. This becomes more important in case of pharmaceutical companies as the growth depends largely on research and development which can be very costly and long term therefore to stay ahead with me sense for a pharmaceutical giant to wear the cost of the research buy funding smaller but capable research specialized organizations and in turn obtaining the marketing rights for the product on completion of successful research. Pfizer through extensive strategic alliances formed over the years has provided a superlative example of effective use of strategic alliances achieving goals growth and sustenance.