Correspondence: Andrea Sobrio, Executive Insight AG Metallstrasse. 9 6304 Zug Switzerland. Tel: +41 79 456 87 16; Fax: +41 41 711 52 51; e-mail: andrea.sobrio@executiveinsight.ch

¹is a partner at Executive Insight, a professional services firm focusing exclusively on the healthcare industry. His expertise lies in the development of innovative and sustainable business models within the healthcare industry.

²is a consultant at Executive Insight and currently pursuing a PhD in organisational behaviour. Her professional focus lies in the area of corporate social responsibility and sustainability in healthcare.

Abstract

As different stakeholder groups become more interrelated, influence and decision patterns in the healthcare environment change. The authors argue that pharmaceutical companies need to find better ways of integrating into the healthcare network to address present challenges such as issues of public trust and decreasing access to medical professionals. The paper shows the root cause of such challenges to lie in the lack of value created by pharmaceutical companies for the healthcare network as a whole and proposes a framework to measure that value beyond pure financial metrics. Based on concrete examples, an approach for integration into the healthcare network leading to more successful interaction with various stakeholders is presented. Integration is seen as successful if pharmaceutical companies are able to create sustainable value to all relevant stakeholder groups in a balanced fashion.