In another price-cutting move, GlaxoSmithKline has slashed the price tags on all its drugs in Indonesia by 30 percent to 50 percent, in a bid to increase sales volumes, Reuters reports. The new cuts follow other discounts in emerging countries--and will be followed by future cuts in developing countries.
SVP Christophe Weber told Reuters about the pricing plan, explaining GSK's emerging-markets sales strategy. "We are very much volume driven," Weber told the news service. "By reducing prices, of course, we'll reduce our margin. But if the volume increases significantly, that's fine." He said the company would like to "work with 30 percent to 40 percent of the population" in middle-income emerging countries "rather than 10 percent."
Weber cited previous discounts in the Phillippines: Sales of some of the discounted drugs, such as its antibiotic Augmentin, grew by 50 percent after prices were cut. He wouldn't say which countries are next in line for the price cuts.
- read the Reuters piece