Correspondence: Thimo L. Sommerfeld, Abolon Ltd., 90 Long Acre, Covent Garden, London WC2E 9RZ, UK. Tel: +44 207 849 3006; Fax: +44 207 849 3200; E-mail: tsommerfeld@abolon-consulting.com; Web: www.abolon-consulting.com

¹is a managing director with Abolon, the transaction advisory and strategy consulting firm focused on the healthcare/life sciences industry. Previously, he was a board member on a number of healthcare companies, among others of generic companies Zentiva, Leciva and Slovakofarma. Abolon has conducted a range of strategy and operational improvement projects with generic pharma focus.

Received 28 February 2007; Revised 28 February 2007; Published online 1 May 2007.

Abstract

Selling innovative drugs and generic drugs is as different as selling rockets and sneakers. It is, therefore, not surprising that innovative pharma companies have difficulties in developing strategies for entering and exploiting selected generic markets. In spite of barriers to entry, their interest in specific generic segments is definitely high. And we do believe that this interest will result in increasing generic activity of innovative pharma players — even if selling sneakers requires building new capabilities for rocket traders.