PHARMANIAGA
PHARMANIAGA
PHARMANIAGA
OVERVIEW ANALYSIS
PHARMANIAGA MOHD RIZAL KISMATH BATCHA (2007)
Before our group decided to go for a two days trip to Kuala Lumpur, our group had
collected much information about the company through Internet, magazines, papers and
from peers.
1. Pharmaniaga is one of UEM subsidiary company and a public listing company in the
Main Board Bursa Malaysia Securities (BMS) with the vision to be Malaysia's
to serve and the Pharmaniaga mission is to deliver maximum value to our customer
through superior quality products and services by committed professional and caring
employees.
sales and marketing, supply medical product and services, hospital equipment.
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Before the trip to Kuala Lumpur, our group had prepared few questions as below:
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2. Pharmaniaga Overview
a) Pharmaniaga Berhad
Pharmaniaga is the largest integrated local healthcare public listed company in the Main
logistics and distribution, sales and marketing, supply medical product and services,
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Pharmaniaga’s range of products can be divided into generic pharmaceuticals product (27
and Pharmaceuticals). Pharmaniaga had been awarded by IMS Healthcare 2007 with:
b) APEX Berhad
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tablets, capsules, oral liquid and suspension, creams and sterile eyedrops. Best selling
products developed in the last few years include the antihistamines ezede® and Adezio®,
CovastinTM, a lipid lowering drug and AvexusTM a new macrolide antibiotic, while the
From the information above, our group had defined Apex (M) Berhad as the main
competitor to Pharmaniaga. However, Pharmaniaga has been defined as the market leader
in the pharmaceuticals industry with positive growth trend which will enable
Pharmaniaga to take advantage of the opportunities available and enhance their status as
the leading player in this industry. In addition, due to Pharmaniaga new product launched
the pipeline, thus marketing team of Pharmaniaga has been strengthen. As a result,
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Well, before we went for the trip, we were tried to relate Pharmaniaga with the 8P that we
have studied in Service Marketing which are price, promotion, place and time, products,
thinking if Pharmaniaga could be explained by these 8P. Moreover, we would like to seek
in which there are no competitors for them. Under our perceptions, Pharmaniaga may be
government’s subsidiary company. This is due to the fact that more than fifty percents of
the medicines and equipments are supplied to the government institutions by them.
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2. Information Obtained
Basically, we were invited to the Biomedical Department which only represents one of
the departments of this company. We realized that most of the equipments that we can see
in hospitals are actually made by them. We were exposed to the external environment
such as the appearance of buildings, interior furnishing, equipment and other visible cues
Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) is allocated in their warehouse. ASRS is successful
in optimizing space utilization at central warehouse which aids to store and remove
inventory automatically from their warehouse. Thus, works could be done efficiently and
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Basically, we would like to say that it is an awesome company. Through the detail
analysis by the hosts, we can actually understand their products and services more deeply.
We have a good feedback for Pharmaniaga since it still able to maintain good
the excellent performances with less effort and less human energy to achieve it. We
would like to say that Pharmaniaga is an advance and successful company with
In addition, strong and motivate marketing team that has been formed is crucial in
promoting and advertising their products and services. Pharmaniaga’s has the largest
sales team among local generic healthcare companies which is beneficial and relevance in
4. Critical Analysis
Our group has defined few problems for Pharmaniaga Company before the trip which is:
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Company to follow the trend and fulfill the customer’s expectation. However,
advance technology involving high cost to fulfill customer’s expectation to get the
imperative to ensure that these generic products are of high level of quality, efficacy
and safety of pharmaceuticals products to safeguard the public. Drugs have the expiry
date thus it is imperative for Pharmaniaga to avoid the expiry date. Therefore
providing pharmaceuticals product just in time will be one of most important issue to
c) Government policies
Malaysia is an Islamic country; therefore it is vital to make sure all edible products in
Malaysia are halal. That serves as one of the challenges for Pharmaniaga to make sure
product may need the “non-halal” ingredients to product it; it is one of the challenges
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Pharmaceutical products are not like other normal products which have standard and
average demand. Therefore our group have defined balancing Malaysian customers’
company holds national emergency such as bird flu, therefore it is important for
5.Problem Statement
a) Barriers in patent
product will be one of the problems to Pharmaniaga. Pharmaniaga need to wait for
be involved in the R&D to formulate the new product in order to fulfill customers’
expectation. To be the first to launch new product enables them to capture market
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share, but high costs and time consuming are involved to formulate a new product.
fails to fulfill Malaysian expectation in getting cheap and high quality pharmaceutical
products.
c) Capacity Limitations
Pharmaniaga is one of the fast growing corporations in Malaysia with 24.3% growth
per year. But with broad range of product and the capacity limitations in
6. SWOT analysis
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Strength Weakness
Integration of different field
helps to run the production and
services more smoothly. High operation and
Outstanding quality maintenance costs
Innovative thinking which
enhance their market leader
status
Opportunity Threat
expansion
a) Strength
Integration of different field helps to run the production and services more
smoothly.
yet affordable products and services are provided. Because of the integration,
Pharmaniaga is able to control their own productions thus demands from different level
of customers can be fulfilled thus shortage of the products are reduced. As a result,
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different field is responsible to achieve their mission and vision as well as objectives of
the company.
Studies regarding human behaviour are well designed to understand their potential
customer thoroughly. This is due to the fact that different people tend to hold different
perception and belief in decision making. Thus, innovation and creativity are greatly
applied into marketing strategy which enables them to become a potential market leader.
Outstanding quality
quality products and services which is stated as the mission of their company. Therefore,
efforts and guidelines have been made or complied to achieve their desire mission.
Hence, Quality Management System is maintaining at the excellent level without any
certified to the ISO1990 standards, which is the essence of effective quality management.
b) Weaknesses
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Next weakness is related to the high costs that Pharmaniaga has to cover such as
maintenance and operation costs. Therefore, relevant strategies have to be planned and
launched to make sure that maximum capacities can be operated without wasting their
resources. Moreover, budget for the maintenance costs have to be planned carefully since
c) Opportunity
Pharmaniaga invest a lot of efforts in research and development field in which an amount
of money spent to investigate and plan for the best strategy for advance development. As
developed and new products can be promoted in the market faster in cost-effective
Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam and China. With the rapid growth and development, they
have the opportunity to expand their businesses into other Asian countries and USA.
realized since this is a golden opportunity for Pharmaniaga to expand their strategies and
businesses worldwide.
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d) Threat
Competitors
Although Pharmaniaga has become a potential market leader in Malaysia but they still
have to compete with other competitors in order to strive and attain their goal. This is a
challenging as well as threatening task for Pharmaniaga since customers are more likely
to compare the similar products with respect to the different price and quality offered.
performances.
There is always a balancing state in the demand and supply of a product. Companies tried
to reach the break-even point in order to gain profit when sufficient products are supplied
to meet the customers’ demand for a particular product. This is due to the fact that excess
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In our group’s opinion, critical success factor of Pharmaniaga is the effectiveness in the
competitors cannot compete easily since Pharmaniaga is sustaining their efforts from
manufacturing their own products until they are successfully delivered to the customers.
reduced under this circumstance. Moreover, customers are glad that they are actually
paying less thus this would be the crucial success factor for Pharmaniaga.
too. For instance, demand and supply is always in a fluctuation rate thus it is a big
demand and supply level. Pharmaniaga may face this trouble in balancing the demand
time may be taken to reach a desired end. Expert advices or opinions should be inquired
However, it is a costly yet difficult task in which company have to pay an amount of
money constantly even though there is still no result generated especially for the demand
of products.
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8. Applied Theory
Since Pharmaniaga have their own logistic department thus methods and channels to
deliver have to be well decided. As we know, customers can actually place their order
through electrical channel since there is a stable network to support and manage the order
from customers. Moreover, an alternative network has been designed to avoid network
being jammed thus customers can make an order either through physical channels or
electrical channels since both channels are reliable and easy to use.
Price
Pharmaniaga maintains a good price strategy since the reduced prices are reaching the
final customer and not being absorbed by resellers in the marketing channel. In fact, this
will enable Pharmaniga to gain more profits as intermediate costs could be eliminated.
On the other hand, customers can keep away from bearing the higher prices as they are
paying wholesaler prices instead of retailer prices. As a result, customers pay less but
qualities of the products are assured and customer’s satisfaction can be increased.
Product elements
value added to fulfill customers’ needs. This is due to the fact that customers are used to
judge a performance based on the whole value of the core product instead of merely
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Physical environment
Customers were first exposed to the physical appearance of a company once they step in.
Visible cues such as equipment, employee’s uniform or decoration of the building may
influence customers’ perception. For example, customers would likely to have a good
feedback if the building of the company is indeed dazzling and beautiful. Hence, efforts
have to be made in order to enhance the supplementary services which will absolutely
promotion and education play important roles to provide related health information and
advice, and develop strong relationship with customer through effective communication
Tahu!’(MAT) and Skuad Operasi Sihat (S.O.S) to provide related health information and
advices to public. At the same time Pharmaniaga also placed importance on corporate
MAT is the campaign that inculcates consumers’ awareness on the importance of proper
medicine management. In its effort to make it easily accessible to the general public,
Pharmaniaga has compiled “Mesti Ambil Tahu!” booklets and made them available in
health clinics. Several activities have be organized under MAT such as:
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Program “ Jom Tak Nak” di IPTA - Kubang Pasu (28 Julai 2007) Activities included
distribution of MAT Health Education Brochures, Quiz and prizes for participants and the
For the S.O.S campaign, mobile clinics act to provide health screening services and
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People
People is one of the valuable assets to company and that they can make a significant
impact on business. Despite technology advances, many services will always require
direct interaction between customer and service personnel. The nature of these
there are about 1900 employees and in 2005 Pharmaniaga have invested about RM 40000
Process
Creating and delivering product elements requires effective design and implementation of
the processes. In Pharmaniaga logistics, customer can make their order through
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Pharma*Net that is Pharmaniaga had subscribe the Pharma*Net to Telecom Malaysia and
Time Telecom. When customer service order management (CSOM) had received the
customer order through the e-ordering they will send the order to the warehouse in
picking out the product through Automated Storage Retrieval System (ASRS). After the
products have been picked up, the product will be put at staging area for shipping to the
destinations.
Delivery
Order
Customers
Shipping
Staging area
Pharma*
Net
C
SOM Automated
e- RF
Storage
Orderin Picking Retrieval System
g (ASRS)
SC RF
M Put
away
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Improving productivity is an essential strategy for reducing costs, and improving the
quality should be defined from a customer perspective for building customer satisfaction
and loyalty. In order to control the Pharmaniaga product, Pharmaniaga have their own
R&D and corporate R&D. Pharmaniaga Quality Control and Research & Development
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Infor Co
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CORE:
Billing Order
PHARMANIAGA Taking
Ex
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The above Flower of Service features a core product which is surrounded by a cluster of
supplementary services. Eight clusters are displayed as petals in which they were used to
Information
Customers are likely to seek information regarding to the products and services before
making a decision. Thus, Pharmaniaga has been developing a marketing team to aid in
promoting and providing relevant information for their favor customers. Moreover,
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customers can easily gain information through their website as well as words from
mouth. This is due to the fact that customers especially new customers are information-
hungry thus precious advices are necessary to avoid misunderstanding regarding to the
service provided.
Consultation
more likely to get responses from the service provider especially when there is variety of
products or services which tend to confuse them. Therefore, Pharmaniaga has been
relationship with the company. When customers have a better understanding towards the
Order taking
Order taking took place when customers decided to buy a product or service.
Pharmaniaga is successful in handling this element since the process is fast, accurate and
timely. For example, ASRS aids to store and remove inventory automatically thus there is
Hospitality
Under hospitality element, service provider has to provide an ideal environment and
procedure to attract new customers yet to retain old ones. In our opinion, Pharmaniaga
managed to provide such an environment since their employees are well trained and the
systems that they are using are in advance. Moreover, well managed logistic systems may
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aid in increasing customers satisfaction as they save times and efforts in order to deal
with Pharmaniaga.
Safekeeping
Safekeeping service has been provided by Pharmaniaga to enhance their core product.
For example, their products are well taken care of in terms of packaging, products are
reliable and have been certificated, efficiency of the logistics system to deliver the core
increased since Pharmaniaga is paying attention closely to their safety and security
aspects.
Exception
Exception is a supplementary service that falls outside the normal routine. Pharmaniaga
special requests from the customers have to be taken care, problem or complaint
regarding to the services provided have to be handled as soon as possible. Besides, the
company should be held reliable for any mistake and should compensate for any loss,
Billing
Pharmaniaga has to make their billing timely and effectively since convenient and easy
products either to government or private hospital in large amount. Therefore, bills have to
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Payment
Customers are expected to take action once they have received the billing notices. Credit card and
debit card as well as transfer of cash or checks are accepted as long as the payment method is
convenient and easy for customers. Pharmaniaga have to control their account receivable and
account payable in order to reduce overload debt. Thus, customers have a variety of choices in
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There have few recommendations we would like to suggest for Pharmaniaga Company.
Pharmaniaga is one of strong growing company in Malaysia with the 24.3% growth
per year, therefore maintaining and improving the research procedures to produce
To expand the Pharmaniaga business to penetrate new and untapped markets in other
regions of the world, it is imperative for Pharmaniaga to absorb western style as the
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Since Pharmaniaga is the market leader in Malaysia, thus Pharmaniaga should aim to
achieve the status as Asian market leader. Therefore, Pharmaniaga should expand
their businesses in other regions of the world, not only focusing in domestic markets
Conclusion :
solutions provider. “Quality is our virtue” is the company’s vision in which Pharmaniaga
customers would like to pay less but higher quality is expected but, Pharmaniaga is able
to enhance their concepts with successful handling in those kinds of problems. This is
pretty true since Pharmaniaga aims to provide the greatest quality of their products to
their favour customers. Next, SWOT analysis of Pharmaniaga has been defined in which
strength and opportunities are favourable situations and are likely to increase company’s
profitability while weaknesses and threat are unfavourable situations in which it might
harm the company’s profitability. In our group’s opinion, integration of different fields is
critical in meeting customers’ demands and needs other than the strengths of the
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company. The solutions and recommendations that have been mentioned above are
realistic because Pharmaniaga’s vision and mission have stated that quality is their virtue.
Since this is the first time we were exposed to a company which have different
department to handle and promote those particular products, thus we would like to
conclude that Pharmaniaga is indeed a successful company. This is due to the fact that
innovative yet creative thinking may help them to differentiate their company with other
competitors since they have their unique strategies. Therefore performances may be
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