The Pharmaceutical Business   1 of 13  
     Introduction
Photo of Pfizer factory
Figure 1. A modern pharmaceutical factory.
The Pharmaceutical Business is primarily a resource for teachers and students studying for VCE Business. The information and data it contains will also provide valuable supporting information and material for GCSE Applied Business, especially Unit 2, and for some of the work carried out for Intermediate GNVQ Business.

Whilst The Pharmaceutical Business may not provide an exact fit with the GCSE and GNVQ Units, some of the case study examples and resources can be applied to whatever business is chosen for study on these courses. Use them as examples of good practice and compare with the real-life examples that are found through your own research and investigation.

The booklet is in two broad sections: Manufacturing and Human Resources.

In chapters 1 to 3, we will examine how pharmaceutical companies develop and manufacture their products. We will look at the performance of pharmaceutical companies in the context of the whole UK manufacturing sector. We examine how medicines are developed, the importance of regulation and quality control and how value is added through the manufacturing process.

In chapters 4 and 5, we will look at the contribution of people - the human resource - to the performance of pharmaceutical companies. In particular, we will see how companies recruit the people they need, how they train and develop people and how they use teamwork to increase productivity.

The information on manufacturing, recruitment, training and organisation has been provided by major pharmaceutical companies operating in the UK. Companies are not identified by their real names but, wherever possible, we have included examples of the actual material used by these companies.
Photo of machinery and workers
Figure 2. People are the key resource in pharmaceutical manufacture.
Structure of the resource
The resource has an introduction and 6 chapters:

          Introduction
     1. The market
     2. Making pharmaceuticals
     3. Is the pharmaceutical industry like other industries?
     4. Human Resources - recruitment
     5. Human Resources - training
     6. Conclusion
Using this resource
There are a number of interactive features in this e-source:

A glossary of terms: any word with a glossary entry is highlighted like that. Clicking on the word will open a new window with a definition of that word.

Assignment trigger: on some pages, there is an assignment trigger. For those following the AVCE course, this will give you a chance to produce some work for your portfolio.

Roll over diagrams: many of the diagrams have highlights or sequences. You can see these by rolling your cursor over part of the picture or part of the text. The text has a roll over highlight like that.
Teachers' notes
Click here to download a pdf file of the Teachers' notes (420 K).

If the file does not start to download automatically, right click (Windows) or click and hold (Mac) and choose the option that looks like 'Save link to disk' from the menu.

You will need Adobe Acrobat Reader to view this file.
Reproduction
The material in this booklet may be reproduced for use within educational establishments.

For further information contact:

Publications Department
ABPI
12 Whitehall
London SW1A 2DY

Telephone: 020 7930 3477 ext. 1446
Fax: 020 7747 1411

© ABPI March 2004
The Pharmaceutical Business
was developed by schoolscience.co.uk.