Study of integration processes in the pharmaceutical market in the context of the development of territorial pharmaceutical ecosystems
Authors: Petrov A.L. , Andrianova G.N. , Gavrilov A.S. 
Published: September 2024

Introduction. The ecosystem approach to the organization of business processes in the pharmaceutical market meets the prevailing trends, so the growth index of e-commerce in the retail sector of medicines for 5 years amounted to 1.87. The market distribution sector of medicines in the Russian Federation is characterized by a shift in corporate governance towards marketing cooperation based on aggregation electronic trading platforms (AETPS). Development of territorial pharmaceutical ecosystems (TFE) As a new integrative tool for managing the pharmaceutical development – production – distribution cycle, in order to achieve the target model of PHARMA 2030 at the territorial level, it requires the development of regulatory mechanisms for managing the supply of medicines. Objective: characteristics of integration processes in the industrial, wholesale and retail sectors of the pharmaceutical market to assess the potential competitiveness of territorial pharmaceutical ecosystems. Material and methods. The primary data for the analysis were: volumes of wholesale commodity residues of medicines produced in the Ural Federal District (461 registration certificates; proprietary Price and Distribution Test data for 230 trade names of LP EMIS data 2021–2022; Alpharm data 2021–2022; Datainsight 2022. In the course of the study, a structural analysis of the pharmaceutical market, a functional analysis of participants in the pharmaceutical product chain, and a marketing analysis were carried out. Results. It was found that the dynamics of the AETP segment development corresponds to the outstripping growth of highly integrated platforms: the short-term growth index of 5-pl AETP (Uteca) is 164%, 4-pl (Eapteca) is 55%, 3pl-AETP (averaged) is 36.5%. The absence of formal mechanisms of regional protectionism for the sale of finished dosage forms of local manufacturers in the Ural Federal District has been revealed. We have obtained the results of evaluating the effect of ecosystem integration of certain types of pharmaceutical market participants. For manufacturers of medicinal products, it was determined that the median coefficient of penetration of the local assortment of medicinal products into the pharmaceutical market in the context of ATX groups of level 2 is 0.67, which indicates a significant diversification of the assortment portfolio and the possibility of its aggregation without a barrier of internal competition. In the wholesale drugs sector, the potential for saving margins on medicines has been identified when implementing the scenario of localization of supplies in production regions in low and medium-low price ranges (30 – 550 rubles/unit), varying between 53–67%. It was found that the median share of regional distribution in the Ural Federal District (in packages) is 20.72%. It has been established that the Ural Federal District is one of the leaders in terms of the share of omnichannel consumers in the pharmaceutical market (63%), which is a significant incentive for the integration of organizations in the retail sector of the pharmaceutical market into the ecosystem 5pl platform. Conclusion. Situational analysis of the morphology of cooperative interactions in the pharmaceutical market allowed us to identify the prerequisites for the formation of ecosystem-organized management structures in the pharmaceutical market system – territorial pharmaceutical ecosystems. We have systematized incentives for ecosystem determination of medicines supplies, and found that: an additional channel for the market distribution of the industrial range of medicicnes in the Urals is not associated with a barrier to internal competition of pharmaceutical plants; the inclusion of regional suppliers in TFE will allow to form additional competitiveness in the “buyer's market” in conditions of market dominance of federal suppliers; the omnichannel approach to the distribution of the retail range of TFE in pharmacy organizations has a high projected conversion rate. A detailed assessment of integration processes in certain sectors of the pharmaceutical market did not reveal critical barriers to the introduction of TFE.