THE DISTRIBUTION OF PHARMACEUTICALS IN EUROPE - CURRENT AND FUTURE-TRENDS IN WHOLESALING

As of January 1, 1993 a huge market, encompassing more than 325 millio n people, has been established with the unification of the 12 member s tates in the European Community. During the last 10 years, the pharmac eutical wholesaling sector has therefore been involved in an intense r estructuring process. But, there is a considerable scientific gap in t he knowledge of pharmaceutical wholesaling. In view of the uncertain s ituation and the scarcity of structured information, the purpose of th is article is to examine current and future trends in the European pha rmaceutical wholesaling sector. We reviewed the literature and identif ied three major areas of interest; general threats to traditional full -line wholesaling, wholesalers' response to these threats, and the new Glaxo distribution scheme. The current and expected importance of the se areas were assessed with the help of a survey, encompassing 20 expe rts in this field. Based on the review and the survey, we conclude tha t there are many serious threats to traditional wholesaling, the major ones being governmental pressures to lower the already relatively low gross margins, manufacturers contemplating taking over the drug distr ibution process themselves and increasing international competition. T he major responses to these threats are to become a truly internationa l player (via mergers, acquisitions and joint ventures), or being able to provide the customers with detailed management information through computerised networks. In order to survive the next 5-10 years, compa nies have to be very alert to the changing competitive situation.