ABSTRACT
The basic meaning behind the word franchise is very different when looking at a consumer marketer’s or pharmaceutical marketer’s understanding of the word. Within the consumer world, the word “franchise” is not widely used within the context of brands. An organization may make use of a franchise business model, often with brands attached to i t such as McDonald’s or Starbucks, but it does not have the same depth of meaning that it holds within pharmaceuticals. The term “pharmaceutical franchise” is used to signal a group (or range) of product brands that target a similar indication or physician segment (from a single company) with the objective of leveraging the brand equity inherent from previous (or future) product brand offerings.
