Accelerated change dynamics within the healthcare industry: Just a trend, or is there more to it?

Abstract

Reports of mergers and corporate takeovers have featured regularly in the press for years now. Buzzwords like 'merger waves' and 'megamergers' point to developments that evidently occur repeatedly worldwide but differ greatly from sector to sector. Over the last few years, this has led to a considerable change in the competitive landscape, particularly in the healthcare industry. One of the main causes of this has been - and still is - a radical transformation of business models driven by changes in demographic conditions and rising costs in healthcare systems, most of which are state-controlled. The kind of free market forces that dominate other industries are of little meaning here. The business development and business models of the providers of medicines and health services are under great pressure to change, not only from the classic 'customers' (prescribing doctors, pharmacists), but also from insurers and the respective governments - through regulation and intervention in the market. This affects both classic pharmaceutical companies and healthcare service providers. © 2008 Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg.