Essay Example on Exporting Pharmaceuticals from US to Denmark

Denmark is a very prosperous nation that provides a wealth of opportunities to those looking to boldly explore these various opportunities and better not only their lives but also the lives of others through their bold move to invest in the different available platforms therein. In the domain of the pharmaceutical industry, Medicon Valley harbors more than 60 percent of all the Scandinavian pharmaceutical industry. Medicon Valley is the heart of science cluster that is found in the region of Southern Sweden and Eastern Denmark. This given area is a host to six university hospitals, fourteen leading universities, 5,000 dedicated research and development personnel, seven science parks, 5,500 researchers with graduate degrees as well as 400 Ph.D.’s researchers. Additionally, the nation has significant expertise in health fields such as cancer, diabetes, central nervous system diseases, cardiovascular diseases, allergies, as well as inflammatory diseases. Danish Medicines, which provides various forms of statistics concerning health and sciences in Denmark, provided statistics that showed the leading top selling drugs that are sold in Denmark are drugs aimed at treating diseases associated with the central, nervous system. The other areas of treatment that ranked in the given statistics included heart and blood circulation, the immune system, respiration, digestion and metabolism, infection, urology, blood and blood forming organs, joints, muscles and bones, sense organs, hormones as well as dermatology. Therefore, the aim of this paper is to focus critically on exporting pharmaceuticals from the United States to Denmark.

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In Denmark to the United States, the single biggest commodity that is exported is pharmaceutical products. Over the years, a rise has been experienced in Danish Pharmaceutical products, and within the last decade, these exports have tripled. It is evident that Denmark, in the year 2014, exported almost 12 billion USD in pharmaceutical products. Besides, around that time, the exportation demand was about 90 percent of the entire production of pharmaceuticals in Denmark. The approximated divisions of these exports include 57.4 percent, Europe while 27 percent of the pharmaceutical products exports go to North and South America. Moreover, the Danish country experiences a trade surplus of about 7 billion IS dollar in Pharmaceuticals while that of the United States was about 3.1 billion US Dollars. In the year 2012, the Danish country spent an approximate of 3.50 billion USD on pharmaceuticals. The utilization of these products in the country ranks as one of the lowest among the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development countries. The life expectancy of Denmark is 80.05 years, and this makes this given country to top the chart regarding the levels of life expectancies in Europe.

In Denmark, the most common death causes include cancer, which accounts for 28 percent of total demises as well as the heart disease, which accounts for 20.2 percent of the same. The other death causes in Denmark include brain diseases, which hold an 8.8 percentage, lung diseases, which claim a 9.6 percentage, while mental illness claims a 4.6 percentage. On the other hand, diabetes whoops 2.4 percent while central nervous system diseases scoop 2.5 percent. Regarding obesity, the nation in question ranks among the lowest in the global, with a rate of 10%. Nevertheless, they are listed in the eight-nation in Europe that has increased levels of alcohol consumption and the fifth nation that highly smokes. The country homes the top major pharmaceutical firms including Nycomed, Novo Nordisk, Ferring, Orifarm and Lundbeck Pharmaceuticals. In the drug market, these mentioned companies hold very significant and influential positions therein. Additionally, America has decided to make its presence felt in Denmark through locating its research and production facilities therein.

Sub-Sector Best Prospects

As mentioned earlier on, Denmark has countless lucrative opportunities that if taken advantage can better the lives of those who have benefited from the given opportunities and those, they are offering their products and services. To this effect, many United States companies looking great potential to invest in, should realize these opportunities and be quick to grasp them. These opportunities range from those businesses that have an interest in establishing in Denmark research facilities as well as engage in joint ventures and strategic alliances and therefore, can be considered in various opportunities. It is important to note that Denmark has excellent prospects that companies can review and explore, more so, in clinical trials. Moreover, because of the numerous well-positioned Contract Research Organizations which have the level of expertise needed not only to set up but also to conduct tests at all given phases of the trial namely, pre-clinical stage to the III phase companies that seek to engage in such have a right climate. In addition to these, the nation has good hospital capacities as well as a sufficient number of well-registered patient population that enables clinical trials to occur successfully in all phases.

In Denmark, pharmaceutical mainly market their products through targeting opinion leaders as well as doctors. The other platforms used to market drugs include advertisements in the industry magazines. Some of these magazines include “Månedsskrift for Praktisk Lægegerning,” “Ugeskrift for Læger,” as well as “Dagens Medicin.”

It is clear that the Danish county offers many lucrative opportunities for many companies, more so, those focused on pursuing pharmaceutical ventures (Export Government, 2016). However, in spite of these various opportunities, many Danish companies visibly do need help in leaping from the local market to the global one. Therefore, there is a great need for these pharmaceutical companies to identify the programs in the nation that help to promote national export as well as realize the need to contact the necessary and right authorities to help them understand the push they require. They should also ably expect that these appropriate authorities, as well as programs, are giving them the best suitable services that meet their needs well.

In the Danish nation, activities to promote export include 600 full-time equivalents (FTE). About 85% of these FTE are centralized and government institutions. The Trade Council accounts for the largest percentage of these FTE. They amount to 300 FTE. These national export promotion programs, supplement the efforts of the Trade Council, which the regional business development centers mainly offer (Export Government, 2016). These proposed programs assist the SMEs in determining the readiness levels of their exports as well as helps them in identifying the relevant export markets that they should explore. Additionally, offices are belonging to some municipalities that offer internationalized services. In conjunction, these given activities present companies with a range of options, more so, those looking for support from the public sectors to promote their export activities.

The key for this pertains ensuring that all activities in the public sector remain coordinated (Export Government, 2016). Therefore, for this to occur there is a great need to make sure that a visible division of tasks is done between the different bodies of the government, as this is essential. The reason behind this pertains that strengthened coordination between these agencies will ably ensure that they provide companies with the support needed to export their products to areas that offer the right competencies. Consequently, this ensures that businesses receiving this aid have cohesive progression because of being able to determine the readiness of their export activities and more so, of their products to meet the needs of their customers abroad efficiently. The Trade Council has a point of advantage in its presence felt global because of the consolidation and the establishment of a unified promotion structure for exports that operates under the Ministry of Foreign Affairs auspices. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs is deemed as the most original body that can assign the Trade Council the responsibility for promotions activities financed by the state in foreign markets. Besides, the advisory services that the state funds should revolve more on knowledge focused on the in-depth market rather than general business pieces of advice should be offered to the Trade Council or in instances that are appropriate. Moreover, these services should be provided in coordination with a government body that has the necessary specialization in the given area of competence (Export Government, 2016). Therefore, it is not viewed as expedient for regions as well as for municipalities as well as regions to establish competencies within their given systems that will help them conduct activities in abroad markets.

It is important to note that all government organizations will focus on working diligently to ensure the cultivation of healthy relations in foreign markets, which will help in actively opening more doors that will meet the interests of the Danish nation. Therefore, companies can have the guarantee that these organizations will focus on establishing them (Export Government, 2016). Moreover, the dialogues held by public authorities in foreign nations will help in building the trust with a perception that will positively influence the frameworks of international conditions. Nevertheless, the Danish government ought to make more coordinated and integrated efforts to take advantage of the interests building up abroad concerning their products, framework conditions, as well as regulatory models. It is evident that the Danish government has always given priority to the promotions of the nations’ interests in foreign markets. The said priority that the government has given takes shape in many forms. For instance, the government in the year 2013 installed a new offensive trade policy strategy that comprehensively focused on the fields where Danish has strength in such as energy, climate, research, environment, health, food, tourism, as well as welfare. Besides, the government of Denmark has similarly established innovations centers in various chosen markers. Consequently, public-private consortia for marketing have also made significant contributions to the firm and determined positioning of the country’s competencies regarding its external stakeholders. It is evident that all these given initiatives have aimed at creating long-term contributions to the growth of the Danish nation as well as to its levels of employment through increasing the internationalization of Danish businesses. Additionally, the government has made other initiatives concerning the targeted efforts concerned with growing the ten selected potential areas of growth within their economies as well as three market volumes. Moreover, the government has made plans to ensure growth occurs in the given chosen sectors, where both the Danish industry as well as business holds well-established strength positions (Export Government, 2016). The Danish government also continues to ensure that it conducts ongoing efforts internationally, which are coordinated through the central administration. Moving forward, the Danish embassies, businesses as well as authorities will undoubtedly constitute not only a high but also a unified team that will focus on pursuing international opportunities.

In addition to the initiatives that the government has taken, it is evident that the Danish government has focused on prioritizing financial and economic tasks for its foreign services. The aim of this particular move pertains establishing closer ties that have continually existed between the Danish industry as well as businesses and the international services. The impact of this said step concerns enabling the support offered to the nation’s overall activities focused on strengthening the country’s economy. The government has also focused on initiatives that are more strategic as well as value adding and which are needed to give support to the internationalization of the companies therein as well as to ensure that both commercial and political influence focused on shaping the market conditions become more favorable to the country’s interests. The country’s economic diplomacy is entirely focused on ensuring a cross-organizational activity that involves the whole Foreign Service as well as other authorities and ministries and other private stakeholders. The said diplomacy combines the tools focused on effectively pursuing not only foreign policy but also economic objectives (Export Government, 2016). Therefore, it ultimately contributes to the growth of the Danish economy as well as increasing the levels of employment therein. The Denmark ministry of foreign affairs focuses on giving more priority to the economic diplomacy of the country through ensuring that all instruments are incorporated into supporting the country’s economic interests as well as its commercial ones both locally and internationally. Moreover, the reflex of the economy in all fields is strengthened and therefore, aids the nation to success in its given pursuits. These instruments apply in the essence of cooperating with other partners with the inclusion of companies as well as marketing the country and its strength position. Other devices in play include planning for developmental aids, handling economic and political issues as well as consular work on the international and European agenda as well as the overall efforts made by the country to position itself in positions that will aid it to secure shares in the economic growth of the world optimally.

Development of a Marketing Plan

It is significant to note that multinational pharmaceutical companies take responsibility for the shift in the dynamicity of marketing strategies (Kalotra, 2014). It is evident that top companies are focused on forsaking adaptive development, utilizing high-end development while companies based on innovations are continually moving forward, and achieving their goals and objectives. On the other hand, businesses that are not focused on innovating their products and services, as well as processes, are having a difficult time in competing with these organizations that have laid their focus on adapting to innovation. Furthermore, it is evident that the pharmaceutical industry is a very complex on and at the peak of knowledge held by human beings is technologies that are resulting in not only the discovery of drugs but also the development of such. Therefore, there is a need to focus on the best marketing plan for pharmaceutical companies to ensure their success.

For one, there is a great need to make sure that companies looked beyond their generics (Kalotra, 2014). There is an importance for a company to not only have the ability to produce new and innovative products but also to distribute these given products on a global scale still ensuring their generic copies can be well proven. The other significant pertains providing the patents of its products. The importance of doing so is that if it is the only pharmaceutical company that can sell the given drug product to the public, then its potentials for increasing and maintaining huge profits are high. Additionally, this pushes the said company to conduct research as well as development processes that will help it strive for new medications as well as innovative ones. The other move pertains the strategy involving its core model. There is a need to market high numbers of medical drugs to diversified markets from acute therapy areas (Kalotra, 2014). The core design strategy has success because it is independent and does not depend on the small sales of drugs. The other model to consider at this point is the super core model, which is a strategy that is focused on finding and distributing small numbers of drugs in areas that have chronic therapy for not only prolonged sales but also healthy ones. The other approaches necessary in this field pertains considering the super core model, which deals with hardcore sales marketing strategies. The said method is best when a company aims at utilizing aggressive representations, and therefore, this means that hard working representatives ought to be employed because it is a bold move that requires such.

International Legal and Regulatory Considerations

It is important to consider the importance of International Legal and Regulatory Considerations; this section will cover the strides that Denmark has been involved in attention to the foreign places. According to the Legal Council Secretariat (2014), the Ministry of Health in Denmark has a responsibility to regulate medicinal products as well as the pharmacy sector. The other responsibilities that it has it financing health insurance as well as the health care system and promoting health and ensuring that diseases are prevented. Additionally, the ministry in its focus on regulating the pharmaceutical industry has established two distinct units namely, the Danish Health and Medicines Authority as well as the Health Law and pharmaceutical policy group. Each of the said groups has its function, for instance, the Danish Health and Medicines Authority regulates the utilization of drug products, new therapies, as well as medical devices in the country. On the other hand, the other unit focuses on drafting legislations, issuing rules as well as regulations, and taking all legal actions necessary to ensure that the health of the public is always protected. Additionally, the FDA rules are always applied in the country (FDA, 2016). Some of these rules focus on ensuring that drugs that are not compliant with the FDA Act are prohibited. Moreover, it prevents the introduction of misbranded or adulterated drugs into the commerce of the interstate.

Transportation is of great importance in every industry and market. In the pharmaceutical industry, different forms of transportation are utilized. While transporting drugs, there is a high requirement to ensure that, the temperature therein the transport mode is controlled and adjusted according to the environment and according to the set recommended temperature. Some of the transportation modes include gull truckloads, added loads, as well as group ages. Besides, while transporting using trailers, there is a need to ensure that these trailers have GPS mappings of their current locations, recorders that record the levels of temperature therein and allowing for the printing of these recorded temperature levels once the trailer has completed its route. The other systems to be considered herein pertains refrigerated containers, refrigerated delivery vehicles as well as chiller systems. The other focus concerns establishing the best companies that are focused on transporting pharmaceutical products both locally and internationally and perceive of the reputation that the said company has in transporting exported and imported drugs. The other considerations under this context pertain the level of quality services that the firm offers its clients and the sectors of cleanliness and care that they exercise as well as their other requirements among other important considerations.

The most common methods of payment include a letter of credit, open account, factoring, documentary collections, and cash in advances as well as credit rating among others. Denmark has a well-developed financial system and when it comes to importing transactions, companies therein mostly utilize letters of credit, more so, depending on the payment experience that exists between the buyer and the exporter. Moreover, the payment terms, as well as the currency that they payment will occur in, are clearly stipulated in the mortgage documents or the contract between the buyer and the seller. Nevertheless, the most convenient method of payment is the open account payment method. The said method is best suited for customers who are not only well-established but also have a good payment record. On the other hand, new customers are required to conduct a credit check through the United States’ department of commerce’s international company profile service. For firms in the United States that are interested in this given service and therefore, they need to apply for it, there is the option of contacting the closest Export Assistance Center.

It is evident that every company in its given industry and market faces not only challenges but also obstacles, more so, those businesses that enter the foreign market (Export Government, 2016). These companies are faced with a plethora of both barriers and challenges. The reason behind this pertains that each country has its own unique regulatory, reimbursement and marketing environments. Besides, each given country has its foreign government practices as well as policies that can easily impede any market expansion. It is important to note the most common cited issues pertain the regulatory review processes that not only lack any levels of effectiveness in protecting as well as enforcing intellectual property rights but also are also non-transparent in nature. These mostly results in the broad spreading of sales of counterfeited medicines, high levels of tariffs as well as an increased burden reimbursement as well as burdensome pricing policies. Some of these include regulatory approvals, which are very strenuous and problematic and ultimately lead to delays in the approvals of a product and therefore, results in increased costs to manufacturers.

Denmark is a nation that is full of numerous opportunities that can be taken advantage of, more so, in the pharmaceuticals domain. The country’s rich medical healthcare diversity, experience, and input benefits it and makes it ripe for investments. Therefore, for someone or for a company considering investing in exporting pharmaceuticals, they should think Denmark since as seen throughout the paper; Denmark is a fertile place for such an investment. Nevertheless, investors in such transactions should gain more knowledge of the barriers and challenges that they might face while undertaking in the exportation of pharmaceuticals from the United States to Denmark. Ultimately, they should weigh out the benefits and the disadvantages of such a move to make a sound decision.

References

FDA. (2016). CDER Office of Compliance Office of Drug Security, Integrity & Recalls Division of Import Operations & Recalls Imports Exports Compliance Branch (IECB) (1st ed., pp. 1-26). Maryland: FDA. Retrieved

Export Government, (2016). Denmark – Drugs and Pharmaceuticals | export.gov.

Kalotra, A. (2014). Marketing strategies of different pharmaceutical companies. Journal of Drug Delivery and Therapeutics, 4(2), 64-71.

Legal Council Secretariat. (2014). Pharmaceutical Industry in Denmark. Legal Council Secretariat. Retrieved 6 April 2017