david out- negotiation Goliath

Problem Definition:

Non- professional negotiations by two giants of the pharmaceutical industry, which ended up with a clear deception and unethical behavior, which lead to a major disagreement, which Bristol Mayers and Apotex, perceive a threat to their needs, interests or concerns. - also lack of a strong pipe-line for Bristol-Myers made the company in a critical situation when its blockbuster (Plavix) patency came close to an end since (Plavix) is responsible for 1/3 of Bristol-Myers profits which reflects inefficient strategy and lack of planning.

Justification to Problem Definition:

The main reason for the problem was the lake of clear negotiations strategy and good planning which should be strongly presented in such negotiations between the business giants.

Also, One of the negotiation players behaved in an un-ethical manner to achieve his goal, Sherman tried to extract an agreement from Bristol-Myers that would position Apotex favorably in case of rejection of the deal by the FTC although he was confident that FTC most probably will reject the deal, Sherman inserted a clause in the deal that would require Bristol-Myers to pay Apotex $60 million if the FTC rejected the deal.

A research campus operated by Bristol-Myers Squibb...

Mount Sherman and Mosquito Range, Leadville side

English: Bristol-Myers Squibb logo

Moreover, Apotex started shipping its generic product and it quickly became the bestselling generic drug ever while still engaged in negotiations.

In addition, there is a usual conflict between drug products originator companies and generic competitors, since pharmaceutical companies are granted 20 years patent time to newly developed drugs. Generic competitors always try to gain as much benefits as possible by launching there cheaper products as early as possible to start gaining revenues.

List of Alternative :

Developing strong negotiations strategy in the big organizations.

Setting a policy that can assure that lawyers must be presented in such negotiations.

Embedding the ethical principles in organizations.