The concept of Knowledge Management (KM) is a strategic factor, which shapes how efficiently the pharmaceutical companies do business. Advocates of KM believe that these practices accelerate collective learning, improve competitiveness, and facilitate response to market changes. In this context, the paper provides a systematic approach to reap the benefits of KM in pharmaceutical industry. The paper starts with the five important stages of knowledge growth in pharmaceuticals and highlights the need to have a knowledge management system with specific reference to Indian pharmaceutical sector. We have highlighted the importance of IT applications to support and integrate the knowledge capture and sharing processes. The selection of the right KM model with reference to the Indian context is discussed. The pharmaceutical industry being dependent to a great extent on intellectual property and innovation, KM clearly has a powerful role to play. An in-depth coverage of KM implementation strategies and perspectives along with the role of KM as an enabler for the emerging pharmaceutical R&D model is presented in this paper. In this era of global competition, KM comes as a survival technique, and this paper is an attempt to publicize the tremendous growth opportunity KM has to offer to the Indian pharmaceutical industry.
Since the second half of last century, the organizations in general and pharmaceutical sector in particular, have passed through several buzzwords: To include some: Theory of X and Y, T-groups, matrix organization, organizational development, TQM, right-sizing, systems thinking, cultural change, benchmarking, re-engineering, strategic management, enterprise resource planning, learning organization and now "Knowledge Management".
The concept of Knowledge Management may sound like another buzzword but is actually more than a mere management trend, which shapes how the pharmaceutical companies do business. Due to the enormous costs and risks involved in bringing a new drug to the market, it is vital to manage information as efficiently as possible. Proper information management throughout an organization can go a long way towards focusing the search to find a right compound. The ultimate goal is to leverage the intellectual assets of the company to meet defined business objectives. |
