Gopika Radhakrishnan (PGP/23/016)

Jeswin Joy (PGP/23/018)

Malavika Menon (PGP/23/025)
Niha Mol (PGP/23/032)
Nikhil S (PGP/23/033)
Sundarraman Ramalingam (PGP/23/056)

Abstract
Do you know which is the first Indian pharmaceutical company to be listed on the NYSE and
how did it obtain its current stature having started as a small pharmaceutical ingredient’s
supplier in 1984? What are the traditional business models of pharmaceutical companies in
India and how did this Pharma company become a rule breaker in the industry – Is it similar
to the multi prolonged pull strategy used by Warner Lambert and Pfizer? Is the ecosystem in
India with respect to regulator, patents, HMOs similar to that in the western world? Will Co-
opetitive positioning work at all given the state of cooperation in India?
After obtaining the stature the first dilemma came up, the company had to make a choice
regarding its future course - : How much focus should it place on imitation ( the traditional
business of Generics and Active Pharmaceutical Ingredients that gave the company its current
stature) or should it focus on being an innovator or a trail blazer (the innovative drug market
like discovering new molecules and speciality pharmaceuticals) along the imovation
spectrum ?
Later on, the company went head to head with Pfizer’s Lipitor drug, who was the rule breaker
in western market. What happens when you try to take on Lipitor, the western rule breaker in
the Indian market through a generic version of the drug – a dirty battle in the court or closed-
door negotiations? Will the launch of the generic version of the drug end up as a go error?
In its internationalisation strategy, why did it expand operations to troubled countries like
Venezuela but left out a massive untroubled market like Indonesia? What mode of expansion
did it follow – build or buy or borrow? In order to inorganically grow in Germany it acquired
the German branded generics company Betapharm. Can it successfully leverage the
ecosystem of BetaPharm in Germany or would it be a huge blunder/acquisition error? In
Mexico, it acquired an API company from Roche. Was the API company a resource
dormancy under Roche that could be exploited or a troubled unit that Roche wanted to sell
off ? Considering the drug regulation laws are different in different countries, did the
company follow a multi domestic strategy and where did it position itself on the adaption-
arbitrage-aggregation triangle.
In the last few years the new CEO has set a new vision and a business unit itself for the rural
markets in India, will it be sustainable and profitable in the long run? Can it compete with
business units of International giants like Novartis Social Business (Arogya Parivar)
specifically targeting rural markets? Can it open up a blue ocean market similar to Lipitor did
using free health check-ups by targeting latent patients?
In order to get all these questions answered by a team of diverse consultants, please be sure to
attend the Strategic Management session coordinated by Prof. S. Balasubrahmanyam on 19th
and 20th March 2020.