Multi-criteria decision analysis for pharmaceutical supplier selection problem using fuzzyTOPSIS

PurposeSupplier selection in the supply chain network (SCN) has strategic importance and involves multiple factors. The multi-criteria nature of the problem coupled with environmental uncertainty requires several procedures and considerations. The issue of decision-making in selecting the best among various qualified suppliers remains the major challenge in the pharmaceutical industry. This study investigated the multi-criteria multi-supplier decision-making process and proposed a model for supplier selection problems based on mixed-integer linear programming.Design/methodology/approachThe concept of principal component analysis (PCA) was used to reduce data dimensionality, and the four best criteria have been considered and selected. The result is subjected to decision-makers’ (DMs’) reliability test using the concept of a triangular fuzzy number (TFN). The importance of each supplier to each measure is established using fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to an ideal solution approach, and the suppliers have ranked accordingly.FindingsThis study proposes a mixed integer linear programming model for supplier selection in a pharmaceutical company. The effectiveness of the proposed model has been demonstrated using a numerical example. The solution shows the model's applicability in making a sound decision in pharmaceutical companies in the space of reality. The model proposed is simple. Readily commercial packages such as LINDO/LINGO and GAMS can solve the model.Research limitations/implicationsThis research contributed to the systematic manner of supplier selection considering DMs’ value judgement under a fuzzy environment and is limited to the case study area. However, interested researchers can apply the study in other related manufacturing industries. However, the criteria have to be revisited to suit that system and might require varying ratings based on the experts' opinions in that field.Practical implicationsThis work suggests more insights practically by considering a realistic and precise investigation based on a real-life case study of pharmaceutical companies with six primary criteria and twenty-four sub-criteria. The study outcome will assist organizations and managers in conducting the best decision objectively by selecting the best suppliers with their various standards and terms among many available contenders in the manufacturing industry.Originality/valueIn this paper, the authors attempted to identify the most critical attributes to be preserved by the top managers (DMs) while selecting suppliers in pharmaceutical companies. The study proposed an MILP model for supplier selection in the pharmaceutical company using fuzzy TOPSIS.

Payments to key opinion leader physicians and drug sales of top pharmaceutical companies during the COVID-19 pandemic

Background: The unprecedented context of the COVID-19 pandemic poses the opportunity to study several questions in circumstances that would probably not otherwise occur. We sought to determine the dynamics of pharmaceutical company drug sales revenue, market capitalization and payments to physicians during the pandemic, focusing on payments to so-called key opinion leaders (KOLs). Methods: We analyzed the CMS Open Payments data of 15 top pharmaceutical company general payments to US physicians. We calculated total payments per year for all physicians, KOLs and 2018 KOLs in subsequent years. Drug-related fold changes in payments, drug revenues and company market capitation were calculated using Q1-2018 as reference. Yearly differences in payments, drug sales revenue and market capitalization were tested using generalized estimation equations (GEE). A double-sided p<0.05 was considered significant. Results: The analyzed dataset comprised 8,563,872 payments to 382,779 physicians. In 2020, we observed a reduction in payments to physicians and KOLs compared to prior years. The total amount per KOL physician per company also decreased for each year for KOLs and the 2018 KOLs in the subsequent years. Payments per drug, but neither drug revenues nor pharmaceutical company market capitalization, followed a downward trend in 2020 compared to prior years. GEE analysis confirmed that, compared to 2018, the decrease in payments to KOLs overall and for the top drugs of each company was statistically significant. Yet, no significant differences in drug sales revenue and market capitalization was observed. Conclusions: A substantial and significant reduction in payments to KOLs during the first fiscal year of the COVID-19 pandemic was not associated with a reduction in drug sales revenue of blockbuster drug products and the market capitalization of 15 top pharmaceutical companies. Overall, these findings suggest that a substantial part of pharmaceutical payments to KOLs do not appear to impact top drug sales revenues.

Awareness and Attitudes of the Pakistani Population With Regard to Physician–Pharmaceutical Company Interaction: A Cross-Sectional Study

Objective: To determine the awareness and attitudes of the Pakistani population regarding physician–pharmaceutical company interactions.Methods: The data were collected from primary health care clinics and pharmacy outlets located within cities of six randomly selected districts of the Punjab Province. Those individuals (age ≥18 years) who have just completed their visit to the physician and well understand Urdu language were approached. Descriptive analysis was performed for all variables by using SPSS (IBM version 26).Results: A total of 3,852 participants fully completed the study out of 4,301 (response rate 89.5%). Of those, 30.9% were female; two-thirds (66.7%) were aware of drug representatives’ visits to clinics. The majority were aware of pharmaceutical company material presence (or absence) in the physicians’ rooms (56.6%), company items with logos (66.8%), patient education materials (73.4%), and 60.8% thought that receiving gifts from companies was “wrong/unethical” practice for physicians, which was lower in comparison to other professions such as judges to accept gifts from lawyers (65.6%) and professional sports umpires to acknowledge gifts (64.3%). A minority said that they have lower trust on physicians for using drug company notepads or pens (16.7%), going on trips sponsored by the company (16.7%), accepting gifts &lt;15,000 PKR (90.3 US$) (26.7%), and accepting gifts &gt;15,000 PKR (90.3 US$) (40.0%).Conclusion: Survey participants were well aware of physician–pharmaceutical company interactions. Participants were more knowledgeable regarding the pharmaceutical company presence (or absence) in physicians’ offices than about gift-related practices of physicians. Trust on the physician was not affected by small gifts but by the large gifts.

Analisis Rasio Keuangan Terhadap Harga Saham Pada Perusahaan Farmasi

The research has the objective of analyzing financial ratios to stock prices of pharmaceutical sector companies that are listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. Accumulated buy events often occur in pharmaceutical company shares, but the issuer's share price remains stagnant. Where shares are bought by many investors, but the price is still maintained. This research was conducted on the Indonesia Stock Exchange of pharmaceutical entities on the IDX. The population in this research is the financial statements of pharmaceutical entities on the IDX for the period 2016-2020 and that meet the sample criteria, there are 10 companies. This research applies financial ratios including the current ratio, debt to equity ratio. The method applied is a multiple regression linear analysis model. The findings of the F test simultaneously current ratio and debt equity ratio have a significant effect on stock prices. The findings of the current ratio t test have a significant impact on stock prices. debt equity ratio has no significant effect on stock prices. Based on the value of R Square 0.180. This figure is 18% of the percentage of variables studied in this research, the remaining 82% is due to other factors that have not been discussed in the research

Employee Motivation for Training and Development

Training and development is an important function of human resource management. Employees need to regularly undergo training and development programmes to update themselves with the latest technologies and skills, which help to increase the efficiency of the organization. Motivating employees to undergo a training programme is often a challenge faced by employees. This study aims to find the motivating factors for employees to undertake a training and development programme. With a sample size of 172 employees from a leading pharmaceutical company in Sikkim, India, responses were collected and analysed. It was found that interest for updating oneself with the latest technology, better chance of career exploration, commitment to train from the company's end, and encouragement provided from subordinates play significant roles in motivating employees in undertaking a training and development programmes.

Investigating the Drivers and Barriers of Reverse Logistics Practices in the Pharmaceuticals Supply Chain

This empirical research investigates the reverse logistics practices adopted by a leading pharmaceutical company in Egypt, the drivers behind the applied reverse logistics activities, and the barriers affecting the application of reverse logistics. The methodological approach of interpretive structural modeling (ISM) is applied to study the mutual influences across barriers listed by a preliminary case analysis, and to identify the “driving” barriers which may worsen other barriers, and “dependent” barriers influenced by the driving barriers. A key finding of the analysis is that lack of regulation enforcement and lack of public awareness regarding the importance of reverse logistics are the most driving barriers influencing the rest of the identified barriers.

The effects of task environment and organizational agility on perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation in a pharmaceutical company

Purpose This study aims to investigate the relationship between task environment, organizational agility, perceived managerial discretion and strategy implementation on unit performance. Design/methodology/approach Based on the literature review, a structural model was developed. A 74-item questionnaire was circulated among middle managers in sales and marketing. The data collection method used purposive sampling. A total of 228 valid responses were obtained. This study was conducted in a leading pharmaceutical company in Indonesia. The data were analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings Based on the data analysis, this study shows that task environment and organizational agility act as antecedents of perceived managerial discretion, which drives strategy implementation resulting in unit performance. Originality/value Different from previous studies that examined the linkage of inertial forces and discretion, this research scrutinized the effects of organizational agility on perceived managerial discretion and the direct role of perceived managerial discretion on internal strategy implementation.

ImmunoCharge: Phase 4 Clinical Trial App for Pandemic Vaccination

Immuno-Charge is an application that focuses on collecting clinical data forclinical trial purposes and helps to fix appointments for vaccination. The application acts asa bridge between the user and pharmaceutical company as it provides required data to thecompany and provides an easy interface to use, both for user and company. It also keepsrecords and track of vaccines taken by users. Users must fill in the data that is provided tothem in a question-and-answer format. The limitation is that the authentication of the user'smedical data &amp; symptoms is not done. The progress of immunization can be a long, complexprocess that regularly lasts 10-15 years and includes a combination of public and privateenterprise involvement. Vaccines are designed, tested, and directed in a really similar way toother drugs. Clinical trials are research studies or observations done in clinical research.Such planned biomedical or behavioral studies on human members are designed to answerspecific questions about biomedical or behavioral interventions, including new treatments(such as novel vaccines, drugs etc) and known intercessions that warrant encouragingthought about and comparison. Clinical studies provide information about measurement,safety, and feasibility.

Impact of Corporate Governance on Research & Development Investment in The Pharmaceutical Industry in Indonesia

Deciding the investment scale of a company's Research & Development is a strategic investment decision related to creating long-term value of the company and it is a very important decision because it has a certain level of risk and the cost is not small. Corporate governance of a company differs according to the ownership structure of each company, and corporate governance will affect the company's decision-making. The purpose of this study is to examine the effect of corporate governance structure, namely major shareholder, institutional investor, and outside directors to investment research & development at a pharmaceutical company listed in Indonesian Stock Exchange period 2010 to 2017. The population of this study is a pharmaceutical company listed on the Indonesia Stock Exchange. The number of pharmaceutical companies listed during the period 2010 to 2017 is as many as 11 companies. By using purposive sampling, obtained a sample of 5 companies. The data analysis technique used in this research is multiple linear regression analysis. The results of this study indicate that major shareholders have a positive significant influence on research & development investment. Meanwhile, the institutional investor has a positively significant influence on research & development investment. And the outside directors have an insignificant negative effect on investment & development investment.

EVI1-Positive AML Cells Show Distinct Features and High Dependency on ETS Transcription Factor ERG

Inappropriate expression of Ecotropic viral integration site 1 (EVI1) has been associated with dismal clinical outcomes in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), while EVI1 is indispensable for normal hematopoiesis. We have previously reported that EVI1 expression is restricted to hematopoietic stem cell fraction and EVI1-expressing cells show robust long-term reconstitution capacity using Evi1-IRES-GFP knock-in (EVI1-GFP) mice, which enable us to track Evi1 expression on a single cell basis. In this study, we tried to elucidate the functional implication of EVI1 expression in AML using these mice. We generated murine EVI1-GFP AML model by retrovirally transducing MLL-AF9 or -ENL fusion gene into Lineage- Sca-1+ c-kit+ (LSK) cells from EVI1-GFP mice followed by transplantation into lethally irradiated syngeneic mice. Clonogenic and leukemogenic potentials of AML cells, especially leukemic cells with a granulocyte-macrophage progenitor phenotype (L-GMPs) from these mice, were compared according to GFP expression. Remarkably, GFP-positive L-GMPs tended to show lower colony-forming activity in semi-solid media and lower leukemia-initiating potential than GFP-negative L-GMPs. GFP-positive L-GMPs, however, induced a more aggressive form of AML, characterized by shorter survival in the secondary transplantation model. When EVI1-GFP AML mice underwent cytotoxic chemotherapy with cytarabine, the GFP-positive fraction was enriched during myelosuppression, indicating the survival advantage of EVI1-positive cells. To investigate the downstream target of EVI1, we employed murine EVI1-AML model, where murine hematopoietic cells exogenously expressing 3×FLAG-tagged EVI1 were transplanted into syngeneic mice. Using EVI1-AML cells, we performed chromatin-immunoprecipitation coupled to next-generation sequencing (ChIP-seq) by anti-FLAG tag antibody. To identify leukemia-specific targets of EVI1, the result was compared with the result of ChIP-seq obtained from 32D-cl3 murine hematopoietic progenitor cells with 3×FLAG tag inserted into 3'-end of the coding region of the EVI1 gene. Gene ontology analysis revealed that genes involved in immune processes are explicitly enriched in the leukemia samples. Among the list of EVI1-bound genes, we tried to refine functional downstream targets of EVI1, which are upregulated in murine EVI1-AML cells and of which expressions are positively correlated with EVI1. By combining the ChIP-seq data with murine transcriptome data that compare hematopoietic progenitor cells expressing empty-vector and EVI1+ AML cells, and public gene expression datasets of human AML (Valk et al. NEJM 2004), we picked out 18 genes as candidate EVI1 downstream genes. Functional screening using EVI1-AML cells and shRNAs against these genes revealed that silencing of ETS transcription factor ERG (ETS-related gene) markedly suppressed proliferation and colony-forming activity of EVI1-AML cells, as well as rendered them vulnerable to cytotoxic agents. Normal c-kit+ hematopoietic progenitor cells were less affected by shRNAs against ERG. By comparing MLL-ENL immortalized murine hematopoietic cells with high and low EVI1 expression, EVI1-high MLL-ENL cells showed higher ERG dependency than EVI1-low MLL-ENL cells. Pharmacological inhibition of ERG also led to marked inhibition of EVI1-AML cells and EVI1-high MLL-ENL cells. Finally, knockdown of ERG remarkably delayed AML development in bone marrow transplantation model of EVI1-AML and EVI1-expressing MLL-ENL AML. Our data suggest that EVI1-positive AML cells are characterized by an aggressive nature and resistance to cytotoxic agents, as well as low leukemia stem cell capacity. ERG would be a novel downstream target of EVI1, on which survival of EVI1-expressing AML cells depends. Disclosures Masamoto: Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.: Speakers Bureau; Chugai Pharmaceutical Company: Speakers Bureau; Bristol Myers Squibb: Speakers Bureau; Janssen Pharmaceutical K.K.: Speakers Bureau; Eisai Co., Ltd.: Speakers Bureau; ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.: Speakers Bureau; MSD K.K.: Speakers Bureau; Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.: Speakers Bureau; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.: Speakers Bureau; Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.: Speakers Bureau; AbbVie GK: Speakers Bureau; SymBio Pharmaceuticals: Speakers Bureau. Kurokawa: Daiichi Sankyo Company.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Eisai Co., Ltd.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; MSD K.K.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Astellas Pharma Inc.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Teijin Limited: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Nippon Shinyaku Co., Ltd.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; ONO PHARMACEUTICAL CO., LTD.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Kyowa Hakko Kirin Co., Ltd.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; AbbVie GK: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Pfizer Japan Inc.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Chugai Pharmaceutical Company: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau; Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Co., Ltd.: Research Funding, Speakers Bureau.