Market Entry Strategy Development
Assessing strategic value for evidence-based decision making
In order to investigate ease of market access, it was
necessary to look beyond the macroeconomic
indicators and statistics and understand the local
factors and field-level realities which shape
pharmaceutical markets in emerging economies.
Axios accomplished this by leveraging its experience
in emerging markets and interviewing physicians,
insurance providers and public officials in the
prioritized countries.
Navigating Volatile Markets Successfully
As growth opportunities in established markets
dwindle, pharmaceutical companies are turning to
emerging markets to bolster revenues. However,
doing business in these markets carries a great deal
of risk. Emerging market investments are threatened
by volatile economies and unstable political systems.
Moreover, revenue gains are hard to achieve due to
competition from generic manufacturers and lower
consumer purchasing power. In order for
pharmaceutical companies to take full advantage of
emerging market opportunities, market entry
strategies must be informed by comprehensive and
country-specific market intelligence.
Prioritizing Opportunities through
Country-Level Analysis
A pharmaceutical company looking to introduce a
range of infectious disease and oncology drugs in 30
markets throughout the Middle East and Europe
appointed Axios to develop market entry strategies for
both reimbursed and self-pay patients.
In order to determine which countries to prioritize,
Axios considered three main factors: revenue
potential, ease of market access and strategic value.
In the first phase of the analysis, Axios projected the
revenue potential for each country. Countries were
then classified into tiers for both reimbursed and selfpay markets according to revenue potential. From this
analysis, the ten countries exhibiting the highest
potential across disease areas were prioritized.
The above graphic is a representation of the comparison of ease of
market access to revenue potential (note: bubble size denotes size
of patient population).
Following this analysis, the strategic value that the
prioritized countries presented for the company was
considered. Taking into account other factors beyond
market size, smaller countries in less-explored regions
were considered alongside larger and more
mainstream markets.
Finally, reimbursed and self-pay markets were ranked
in a tiered system according to market potential. In
markets where the highest revenue potential was
identified, Axios offered guiding principles for
successful market entry.
Constructing a Global Market Entry
Strategy
For pharmaceutical companies looking to invest in
emerging markets, it is essential to gain a thorough
understanding of country-level realities affecting not
only revenue potential, but also ease of market
access. Combined, these two factors are effective in
assessing real strategic value, which in turn can be
used to guide market entry decisions that minimize risk
while harnessing potential.