Case Brief:

You are working for Bayer AG, a medicine brand as a product manager. You are in charge of the generic line and the new invention which is yet to market in Malaysia.

Bayer AG is a global pharmaceutical company specialised in generics medicines. Besides, they aimed to become a leader in Vaccine and acquired the rights to market a new medication for Covid-19.

The Covid-19 market is juicy but highly competitive. Nearly all top Pharma companies are competing in this space: Prizer-BioNTech, Moderna, Novarvax, Johnson & Johnsons Jansen, Sinovax Biotech, Merck and some more. Most of the treatments are vaccine injections with a different dosage but similar outcomes, while others could be in tablet/pill forms. There could be some new similar products are about to be launched as well.

Bayer AGs product: Covid-19 oral liquid dosage form, is a generic medicine. It cant be considered an enormous innovation (none of the products recently launched werent either), but its profile of effectiveness and security is in the top tier. Most certainly, it has the potential of becoming a blockbuster, was it adequately promoted.

After having analysed the internal capabilities, Bayer AGs CEO, Werner Baumann, had concluded that they would build a Covid-19 generic franchise in the Asia. This region is, by far, one of the most attractive for Pharma companies, and it was expected that 50-60% of turnover would come from there. However, Asia meant complexity: many countries, local regulations, different languages, and so on. As a consequence, they had licensed the product to a Malaysia company with experience in this pharmaceutical area.

You plan to launch the products at some of the independent pharmacies, pharmacy chains such as Watson, Caring and Guardian. With the endemic, retailers have 20% lesser patronage, and many customers will shop for mainly prescriptive medicines and sometimes over-the counter medicines at the pharmacy outlets. Visits to pharmacies are even lower, with customers prefer to browse for over-the-counter products online. Online shopping and home delivery are on the rise over brick-and-mortar retail stores.

To reach out to the end users, you will be serving 2 main business buyers independent pharmacies (segment A) and Pharmacy chains (segment B). All the pharmaceutical products under your portfolio are channeled via the above channels to end consumers. Below are details that have been decided by the management:

The product name is not determined yet. The name must align with the image and positioning of the brand and the existing products.

The product will have a retail price similar like Paxlovid tablet. This pricing includes 25% of commissions to the channel partners.

The product packaging will be similar to the image of all the other products of Bayer AG.

The new product will also be featured on the social media and official website.

The strategies proposed must be innovative in reaching out to target customers effectively and economically (reduce cost and increase profit).

Assuming that Paxloivd by Pfizer and Lagevrio by Merck are already selling as over-the counter medicines (generic medicines) in Malaysia market.

Answer all the following questions. All discussions must be justified with supporting facts and references.

Section 2: Distribution Channels

Discuss TWO (2) criteria you can use to evaluate the channel effectiveness of the product