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Originally Posted by tony20009
Okay... I thought you both are pharmacists or directly connected to the industry. I'm of a mind to think that there's merit in the points you both are making. That said, if you've been out of the pharmaceutical business for over a decade, you'd have to cede that some things may have changed.
For example, I'm a CPA, but I haven't practiced accounting for ages. I'm sure that GAAP has changed since I was last very familiar with it. Yes, the basics are the same as they were 30 years ago, but the specifics are not.
Consulting offers yet another illustration of that point. Take a popular branch of consulting -- IT consulting. For a time, the trend was to go with ERP-based financials and manufacturing solutions, "best of breed" non-financial back office solutions, custom solutions for highly specialized processes and mix and match all those software solutions. Now, the quality and comprehensiveness of some of the major ERP solutions often eliminates the need to do all that simply because the cost of integrating them doesn't return sufficient benefit over simply adjusting to the business processes inherent in a more general scope ERP offering.
Now, I don't know diddly about pharmaceuticals, at least not from the product product content, legal and regulatory sides that seem to be what's being discussed here to know how much change has occurred in the past dozen years, but as it's a huge industry dominated by several huge and constantly evolving conglomerates, I wouldn't be surprised to find a lot has changed. Wouldn't you think so too?
In short, I think the views you both are presenting provide a degree of perspective, as well as facts, not only on change in that industry, but on substantive details that might matter to me as a consumer.
All the best.
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I agree with you on your CPA and consulting reference. Being current with the goings on in all industries is critical however the same does not hold true to the topic of pharmaceuticals as it relates to this discussion. Today's Viagra is the same as it was 12 years ago and it will be the same in 20 years from now. In fact, the pharmaceutical industry has more to do with physicians than it has to do with pharmacists.