A Two Faced Industry

Companies in the pharmaceutical/biotechnology industry care about two things: their products and their patients.  What matters to us, as consumers, is which one they choose to prioritize.


Those who choose to prioritize their products are a force to be feared and reckoned with.  Of the big firms, many of their mission statements include a point about besting the competition, developing the most innovative products, and thereby gaining the most value possible in their company.  This ambitious detail becomes the whole mission in more than one case, in fact, here are three: 


The first line of Pfizer's mission statement is: "We will become the world's most valued company to patients, customers, colleagues, investors, business partners, and the communities where we work and live."


The main portion of GlaxoSmithKline's web section of their mission statement focuses on this segment: "Since 2008, we have focused our business around the delivery of three strategic priorities, which aim to increase growth, reduce risk and improve our long-term financial performance:

•           Grow a diversified global business
•           Deliver more products of value
•           Simplify the operating model"

And this is all the Cephalon website says about their mission statement:

WE ARE DRIVEN

Our mission is to discover and develop innovative drugs to improve patients' lives. Cephalon provides a range of speciality as well as branded generic and generic products to healthcare professionals and patients in over 70 countries, covering Western and Central Europe, the Middle East and Africa.

Kind of scary isn't it? Each of these statements focuses almost completely on a mission of profit generation through innovation, not on patient care.  To be fair, Pfizer continues their mission statements with other statements about their corporate integrity, employee pledges, ethics, and lastly patient care, and their first mission isn't all bad either. It at least holds a double meaning which lends itself to be interpreted as a company which is valued both by patients and by shareholders, however, between GlaxoSmithKline and Cephalon, one would think that pharmaceutical and biotech companies don't care a bit about the people they are supposedly trying to serve through their business.  The GlaxoSmithKline statement is vicious in its claims about future growth.  They outline business strategy, new areas of marketing, new regions to compete in globally, and yet never mention their patients.  This truly is a company to be feared in the marketplace and maybe in our homes too.  The most stirring example of ambition in the pharma industry remains Cephalon's, however.  The statement was taken verbatim from their own website and that really is a frightening prospect.  When a company writes "we are driven" in thirty-two point font on their mission statement page, I start to have doubts about how much they care about their customers.  

There are some bright corporate spots in the darkness of this vast ambition though.  Companies like Johnson and Johnson, Biogen Idec Inc., and Amgen Inc. all have very large focuses on patient care in their mission statements, and even show compassion for their customers over profit for their stockholders by prioritizing them in their set goals. 

Johnson and Johnson's credo truly defines what it is to be a responsible corporation with its first two sentences: "We believe our first responsibility is to the doctors, nurses and patients, to mothers and fathers and all others who use our products and services. In meeting their needs everything we do must be of high quality." 

These two lines make me a comfortable and happy consumer of Johnson and Johnson's products and medications.  What they don't do is scare me with their ambitious claims.  Biogen and Amgen follow a similar track as Johnson and Johnson, but with a more product centric focus.

Here's Biogen's - "To our patients, we are the trusted source of vital therapies for multiple sclerosis, such as AVONEX® and TYSABRI®. We also discovered RITUXAN®, the world's most prescribed treatment for non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and an effective treatment for rheumatoid arthritis. Our patients count on us not only for medications, but also for a variety of support programs that help them deal with the rigors of living with serious illness."

And Amgen's - "Amgen strives to serve patients by transforming the promise of science and biotechnology into therapies that have the power to restore health or even save lives. In everything we do, we aim to fulfill our mission to serve patients. And every step of the way, we are guided by the values that define us."

These three corporations give me hope for the future and give me confidence in the present with their positive, patient centric mission statements.  

So which is the true face of the pharmaceutical industry?  Judging by stock portfolios, the consumer focused organizations do appear to have a lead.  However, only time will tell if their regard for patient care will allow them to soar above the more ambitious companies, or if it will ground them as members of the industry.  For all our sakes though, I can only hope that we, as patients, will continue to have more  market power than any potential innovation, no matter how spectacular.

-Spencer Swan

The following websites were used as sources for this article:

http://manonamission.blogspot.com/2005/06/johnson-johnsons-jnj-mission-statement.html

http://manonamission.blogspot.com/2005/06/pfizers-pfe-mission-statement.html

http://www.gsk.com/mission-strategy/index.htm

http://www.biogenidec.com/about_corporate_overview.aspx?ID=5469

http://www.amgen.com/about/mission_values.html

http://www.cephalon-europe.com/