Electronic Commerce has defined the economy of 21st century. How has E-Commerce played a role in sales of medicines? What are the factors that affect online sales of medicines? What are the most important factors that influence this heavily regulated industry in Europe? These are some of the questions answered in this thesis. To answer the questions posed above, it is necessary to first analyze the sales of medicines. The data of sales of Over-the-Counter (“OTC” henceforth) medicines in 17 Western European countries from 2014-2019 were analyzed. The data was then grouped into the sales by countries, by category of medicines and yearly sales. Some of the interesting aspects of the analyzed data were then noted and the factors that influenced them were explained. It was noted that the OTC medicines in Western Europe is one the best performing markets with the sales of 21 billion USD in 2019, a growth of 2.7% from 2018. The sales of OTC through e-commerce in 2019 was 1.4 billion USD, a growth of 11.7% previous last year. Three countries were chosen in West Europe to try to explain the trends of OTC sales online in them: Switzerland, Italy and Spain. These countries were chosen due to their unusual and abrupt changes in sales numbers at some specific years. The legislative background for the drug distribution in the those countries was explored to lay the foundation for the analysis. The legislations of these countries were found to be similar to a large extent. The abrupt changes in sales, growth of OTC markets in the countries mentioned above were found to correlate with the changes of the legislation governing the sales of OTC medicines. It was established in the thesis that legislation plays a pivotal role in the changing dynamics of online sales of OTC.
I’E-commerce ha definito l'economia del 21 ° secolo. In che modo l'e-commerce ha svolto un ruolo nella vendita di medicinali? Quali sono i fattori che influenzano la vendita online di medicinali? Quali sono i fattori più importanti che influenzano questo settore fortemente regolamentato in Europa? Queste sono alcune delle domande a cui si risponde in questa tesi. Per rispondere alle domande poste sopra, è necessario prima analizzare le vendite di medicinali. Sono stati analizzati i dati delle vendite di farmaci da banco in 17 paesi dell'Europa occidentale dal 2014 al 2019. I dati sono stati poi raggruppati in vendite per paesi, per categoria di farmaci, vendite annuali. Sono stati quindi annotati alcuni degli aspetti interessanti dei dati analizzati e sono stati spiegati i fattori che hanno influenzato tali aspetti intriganti. È stato notato che i farmaci da banco in Europa occidentale sono uno dei mercati con le migliori prestazioni con vendite di 21 miliardi di dollari nel 2019, una crescita del 2,7% rispetto al 2018. Le vendite di farmaci da banco tramite e-commerce nel 2019 sono state di 1,4 miliardi di dollari, una crescita dell'11,7% lo scorso anno. Sono stati scelti tre paesi dell'Europa occidentale per cercare di spiegare le tendenze delle vendite di farmaci da banco in online in quei paesi: Svizzera, Italia e Spagna. Questi paesi sono stati scelti a causa dei loro cambiamenti insoliti e repentini nei numeri di vendita in alcuni anni specifici. Il sotto fondo legislativo di base è stato esplorato per la distribuzione della droga nei paesi sopra menzionati per gettare le basi per l'analisi. Le legislazioni di questi paesi sono risultate essere in larga misura simili. I bruschi cambiamenti nelle vendite e la crescita dei mercati OTC nei paesi sopra menzionati sono stati trovati in correlazione con i cambiamenti della legislazione che disciplina la vendita di farmaci OTC. È stato stabilito nella tesi che la legislazione gioca un ruolo fondamentale nelle dinamiche mutevoli delle vendite online di OTC.
Il panorama legislativo e il suo impatto sulle vendite e-commerce di medicinali da banco in Europa occidentale
JAYAPRAKASH, NISCHAL
2020/2021
Abstract
Electronic Commerce has defined the economy of 21st century. How has E-Commerce played a role in sales of medicines? What are the factors that affect online sales of medicines? What are the most important factors that influence this heavily regulated industry in Europe? These are some of the questions answered in this thesis. To answer the questions posed above, it is necessary to first analyze the sales of medicines. The data of sales of Over-the-Counter (“OTC” henceforth) medicines in 17 Western European countries from 2014-2019 were analyzed. The data was then grouped into the sales by countries, by category of medicines and yearly sales. Some of the interesting aspects of the analyzed data were then noted and the factors that influenced them were explained. It was noted that the OTC medicines in Western Europe is one the best performing markets with the sales of 21 billion USD in 2019, a growth of 2.7% from 2018. The sales of OTC through e-commerce in 2019 was 1.4 billion USD, a growth of 11.7% previous last year. Three countries were chosen in West Europe to try to explain the trends of OTC sales online in them: Switzerland, Italy and Spain. These countries were chosen due to their unusual and abrupt changes in sales numbers at some specific years. The legislative background for the drug distribution in the those countries was explored to lay the foundation for the analysis. The legislations of these countries were found to be similar to a large extent. The abrupt changes in sales, growth of OTC markets in the countries mentioned above were found to correlate with the changes of the legislation governing the sales of OTC medicines. It was established in the thesis that legislation plays a pivotal role in the changing dynamics of online sales of OTC.È consentito all'utente scaricare e condividere i documenti disponibili a testo pieno in UNITESI UNIPV nel rispetto della licenza Creative Commons del tipo CC BY NC ND.
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https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14239/1397