Emil Velinov, Anna M. Chernysheva, Elena A. Fedorenko & Alexandr M. Zobov
At the present stage of development of the pharmaceutical market, strategic alliances are beginning to play an important role, allowing optimizing R&D costs, achieving sustainable development goals and ensuring optimal access to foreign markets, which is relevant in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of this article is to identify the possible impact of various factors on the formation of strategic alliances, including the impact of COVID-19 in the context of sustainable development. To achieve this goal, the global and Russian pharmaceutical markets were analyzed, trends in the formation and development of strategic alliances, including those influenced by COVID-19, were identified, trends in the development of the global and Russian pharmaceutical markets until 2026 were identified, and a model of consumer choice between original medicines and generics, which is especially important in emerging markets, including Russia, was developed as well as developed metrics for the sustainable development of strategic alliances. It is assumed that at the moment there are objective prerequisites for increasing the growth of the number of strategic alliances and intensifying the intensity of their formation, influenced by such a global challenge as the COVID-19 pandemic. At the same time, for a strategic alliance, an important element of education is the choice of the most optimal and effective choice of the form of implementation of the alliance, including in the context of its sustainable development. To test this hypothesis, authors analyzed publicly available documents, including statistical data on changes in the indicators of the pharmaceutical market both on the international and Russian markets. In general, it was proved that the COVID-19 pandemic at the present stage of the pharmaceutical market development gave a contradictory result on the process of forming and developing strategic alliances in the pharmaceutical industry. On the one hand, such a global challenge as a pandemic is pushing companies to pool resources for the fastest possible development and production of vaccines against coronavirus and other essential medicines. On the other hand, in the conditions when the pharmaceutical market in the world is seriously consolidated and represents a configuration of 4-5 largest transnational corporations, the competition has significantly increased and become even fiercer. The global COVID-19 pandemic has opened a "window of opportunity" in this market, the market itself has become one of the fastest growing in the world, therefore, many companies are striving to independently raise their market share, to secure significant positions, especially in the promising segments that have opened. Therefore, the desire and motivation to form strategic alliances in such a market is weakening. The complex geopolitical situation in the world also influences this process. As a result, strategic alliances retain their importance in modern conditions, but rather as an auxiliary tool of corporate strategy closely related to the national and geopolitical characteristics of the functioning of pharmaceutical companies. At the same time, the significance of the geopolitical factor is increasing in the context of the existing trend of the "block" configuration of world development.