Correspondence: Nic S. Terblanche, Department of Business Management, University of Stellenbosch, Private Bag X1, Matieland 7602, South Africa Tel: 27 21 808 2213 Fax: 27 21 808 2226 E-mail: nst@sun.ac.za

¹is Professor and former Chair of the Department of Business Management, University of Stellenbosch, South Africa. Dr Terblanche's teaching and research interests include new product development, customer retention and customer experience in retail settings. He was President of the Southern Africa Institute of Management Scientists for two terms and served for ten years as Editor and Editor-in-Chief of Management Dynamics: Contemporary Research, an accredited management journal. Dr Terblanche has published in Harvard Business Review, International Journal of Market Research, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management and Journal for Studies in Economics and Econometrics.

Received 28 March 2008; Revised 28 March 2008; Published online 29 April 2008.

Abstract

The pharmaceutical industry experienced an unprecedented rate of increase in the cost of developing new drugs while the number of new drugs that were approved and accepted in the marketplace has reached a very low level. Various factors are responsible for this state of affairs. One of the major opportunities available to the pharmaceutical industry to improve this situation is to collaborate with the biotechnology industry. The future solutions to a host of current diseases as well new strains of existing ones lie in the cooperation between these two industries. The pharmaceutical industry will, however, have to carefully manage challenges such as increased governmental control and the damaged image of the industry. There are many opportunities offered by offshoring, advanced application of information technology, climate change and a new approach to sales and marketing, all of which the pharmaceutical industry can exploit. Should the pharmaceutical industry manage to address the issues responsible for the high costs prevalent in the industry, its role as partner with the biotechnology industry could prove to be very beneficial for both these industries.