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Background: There is a general theme in studying employees in the research and development (R&D) department individual performance studies, where tremendous attention has been paid to innovation performance compared to behavioral and particularly extra-role behavior of employees in this department., Objectives: This study investigates the relationship between sustainable human resource management (s-HRM) and organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) through the mediating role of organizational identification (OI) in R&D employees., Methods: A standard questionnaire was used to evaluate s-HRM, OI, and OCB. Five hundred questionnaires were delivered to all employees of the research and development departments of 59 Iranian pharmaceutical companies, and finally, 316 completed questionnaires were collected., Results: The results of data analysis with WarpPls software revealed a positive and significant relationship between s-HRM and OI, as well as OI and OCB. Investigating the mediating role of OI showed that OI partially mediates the relationship between s-HRM and OCB. The model was checked in terms of its fit indices, which were evaluated as favorable., Conclusions: The findings suggest that s-HRM improves employees' willingness to go beyond their defined job description to display in OCB. Additionally, they imply that strengthening OI can improve OCB in employees., Competing Interests: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare., (Copyright © 2023, Sheikhi and Yousefi.)

Background: Uncertainty in real-world product profiles is the main barrier to pharmaceutical market access. Managed entry agreements (MEAs) are the formal arrangements to overcome these uncertainties. Despite the extensive experience of developed countries in implementing such agreements, the experience of developing countries is minimal. As health decision-makers in Iran have moved towards implementing MEAs since 2020, seeking stakeholders' insights is crucial for filling this experience gap and facilitating the optimal implementation of these new policies., Methods: Our research was done in three phases: (1) Focus group interviews to disclose the main objectives of implementing MEAs in Iran, (2) the AHP approach to prioritize uncertainties, and (3) individual semi-structured interviews to carry out strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats (SWOT) analysis., Results: Based on our stakeholders' views, increasing flexibility in improving patients' access to innovative and expensive drugs and responding to budget impact uncertainty seems highly prioritized for conducting MEAs in Iran. The SWOT analysis showed that although MEAs have the chance for success due to their strengths and opportunities, such as providing early and assured access, allocating resources efficiently, and enhancing the efficiency of post-marketing studies, policymakers should consider the weaknesses and threats such as difficulty in defining outcomes, high transaction cost, and lack of suitable infrastructure to increase the success rate., Conclusions: Efficient implementation of MEAs depends on the weaknesses and threats and considering the views of relevant stakeholders. Constructive interaction among all stakeholders is essential for adequately executing MEAs., Competing Interests: Conflict of Interests: The authors have no competing interests to declare., (Copyright © 2022, Author(s).)

Pharmaceutical companies in developing countries are heavily influenced by the Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) agreement and economic liberalization rules. To adjust to the new patent regime, pharmaceutical companies had to adopt some strategies. A systematic review was conducted on the experiences of the pharmaceutical industry in developing countries and strategies adopted by local pharmaceutical companies to survive after the TRIPS agreement. Scopus, PubMed, and ProQuest databases were searched, and twenty-five papers were reviewed. The pharmaceutical industry experiences have been classified into successful and unsuccessful experiences based on criteria developed by the authors. Firm strategies were also divided into four categories based on external and internal factors: aggressive, conservative, competitive, and defensive strategies. Companies were able to survive and even grow after the TRIPS agreement by rebuilding their structures, improving their competencies, and adopting appropriate strategies in line with the new conditions.

The pharmaceutical industry's performance in the global economy has been affected by the growing competition associated with globalization, economic liberalization, and the trade-related aspect of the intellectual property rights (TRIPS) agreement. To maintain performance, organizations need to consider strategic foresight (SF) and organizational resilience (OR) to anticipate future trends and survive crises. By proposing a conceptual framework, this study examines the relationship between organizational resilience, strategic foresight, competitive advantage (CA), and firm performance (FP). A conceptual framework was developed to assess the hypotheses in the pharmaceutical industry. Then, partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was applied to investigate the relationships quantitatively. The results of structural equation modeling (SEM) based on the data generated from 202 completed questionnaires by the pharmaceutical companies in Iran demonstrate that OR, SF, and CA have significant positive impacts on FP. Moreover, CA partially mediates the relationship between OR and FP and also between SF and FP. The findings of this study enrich the existing literature by demonstrating that early detection of environmental change and resilient manner assist Iranian pharmaceutical firms to survive if joining the WTO. This is the first study that examines the direct and indirect effect of OR and SF on the FP, considering the mediating impact of CA. This investigation attempts to address the mechanisms through which OR and SF affect organizational performance, especially in the pharmaceutical industry.

Irrational use of antibiotics as a global health concern has led to excessive treatment costs, failure of treatments, and antimicrobial resistance. Parents' knowledge of and practice regarding antibiotics are two important factors contributing to the (ir) rational use of antibiotics. This study aimed to evaluate ill children's parents' knowledge and practice of prescribed antibiotics. Our subjects included only parents with children up to 12 (inclusive) years of age in Tehran, Iran's capital. A prospective cross-sectional survey was conducted at 203 health care centers in Tehran. Parents' knowledge was evaluated using a 37-item researcher-made questionnaire, and their practice about antibiotics was measured with a self-stated questionnaire, followed by an observational method to gain a real insight into their practice. SPSS 22 was used to analyze the data. A total of 401 randomly selected parents were enrolled in the study. The average score of parents' knowledge of antibiotics regarding administration, indications, storage, and antimicrobial resistance was found to be 9.72 out of 17.00. In the self-stated method, an appropriate practice of antibiotic use was reported in 49.4% of participants who also got an average score of 3.95 points out of a total 8. In the observational method, most parents' practice (68.4%) regarding antibiotic use was found to be acceptable; their average score was 5.93 points out of a total of 10. The findings of this study showed that half of the parents had adopted an acceptable practice regarding antibiotic use.

Diabetes mellitus has been always one of the most prevalent chronic diseases in the last decades. There exist a wide range of pharmacological agents for controlling this disease. However, these agents fare differently in terms of efficacy and safety. Hence, the aim of this study was to compare dulaglutide and liraglutide, two glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonists, in terms of efficacy and safety, drawing on a systematic review and meta-analysis. A systematic review and meta-analysis were carried out in January 2018. The articles were evaluated by two independent investigators and their quality was evaluated using Jadad scale and the Cochrane Collaboration's tools. Finally, the eligible articles entered the study. HbA1c and FBS were considered as efficacy outcomes. Safety profile was evaluated based on several outcomes such as serious side effects and vital signs. Three articles met the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The results indicated that the mean difference (MD) of HbA1c reduction was -0.10% (95% CI, -0.20% to -0.01%, P=0.03) in the patients who received dulaglutide in comparison with the patients who received liraglutide. In addition, dulaglutide was safer than liraglutide in terms of gastrointestinal problems (RR=0.85, 95% CI, 0.73 to 0.99, P=0.04, I 2 =55%) and heart rate (RR=-1.14, 95% CI, -1.90 to -0.38, P=0.003, I 2 =0%). Once-weekly dulaglutide showed a further reduction in HbA1c compared to once-daily liraglutide. However, comparisons between these regimens indicated no significant difference between groups in either FBS reduction or safety profile. Similarly, no statistically significant difference was observed in treatment discontinuation, hypoglycemia events, and vital signs.

Evaluation of pharmaceutical systems performance is an essential prerequisite for promoting evidence-based policy-making and improvement in health system performance. This study attempts to evaluate the performance of Iran pharmaceutical system based on the world health organization (WHO)'s indicators, including access, quality, and rational use of medicines. In this cross-sectional descriptive study, inspired by the instructions proposed by WHO, public and private pharmaceutical service-providers were evaluated in three dimensions and 16 indicators. Accordingly, eleven separate checklists were developed and, in terms of translation, face and content validity were certified by pharmaceutical sector's experts. Sampling was randomly carried out in five cities. Depending on the type of indicators, retrospective or prospective approaches was determined for data collection. The data were collected from April to November 2018 and analyzed by SPSS 24. The availability of targeted key medicines in various cities as well as in public and private pharmacies was 97.5% with no significant difference. Although the medicines cost was higher in private sectors than in public ones, they were affordable in both sectors. In quality indicators, public sectors enjoyed a higher level than the private sectors did. The average number of medicines per prescription in public pharmacies was 3.2 and it was 3.4 in private ones. On average, in public sectors 33% and 32% of outpatients received antibiotics and injectable medicines, respectively. Finally, 77% of medicines were prescribed by using their generic names and 25% of prescriptions were in accordance with key medicines list. This study reveals that the availability and affordability of targeted key medicines in Iran are in good condition; however, in terms of rational use of medicines, Iran fails to meet the standard levels.

Overuse of injections is a common problem in many low-income and middle income countries. While cultural factors and attitudes of both physicians and patients are important factors, physicians› financial intensives may play an important role in overprescribing of injections. This study was designed to assess the effects of providing injection- services in physicians› ambulatory offices on prescribing injectable medicines. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran in 2012 -2013and included a random sample of general physicians, pediatricians and infectious disease specialists. We collected data on the provision of injection services in or in proximity of physician offices, and obtained data from physicians› prescriptions in the previous three-month period. We analyzed the data using ANOVA, Student›s t-test and linear regression methods. We obtained complete data from 465 of 600 sampled physicians. Overall 41.9% of prescriptions contained injectable medicines. 75% of physicians offered injection services in their offices. Male physicians and general physicians were more likely to offer the services, and more likely to prescribe injectables. We observed a clear linear relationship between the injection service working hours and the proportion of prescriptions containing injectables (p-value<0.001). Providing injection service in the office was directly linked with the proportion of prescriptions containing injectables. While provision of injection services may provide a direct financial benefit to physicians, it is unlikely to be able to substantially reduce injectable medicines› prescription without addressing the issue.

In today's competitive world, there are several strategies to deal with the fast changing environment, among which New product development (NPD) is a common strategy. However, almost half of the resources that companies devote to NPD are spent on products that may fail. This issue is particularly highlighted in the pharmaceutical industry mainly because of a long development-time, low success rate, high capital requirement, and market uncertainty. This study identifies critical success factors of NPD based on the relevant literatures and expert opinions in Iranian pharmaceutical industry, then prioritizes them using the methodology of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) through analyzing 50 filled questionnaires structured based on the AHP (Analytical Hierarchy Process) approach. Although the NPD success factors seem the same in both generic and bio-generic pharmaceutical industries, the underlying factors and related sub-factors show the different importance in these two industries. However, this study reveal that, the company capabilities is the most important factor affecting new product development success in both pharmaceutical generic and bio-generic industry. The results of this study contribute to create baseline information for pharmaceutical industry especially Iranian pharmaceutical companies to be more effective in budget allocation on improving NPD success factors so that they can boost the success rate of NPD more effectively.

Managing the supply chain plays an important role in creating competitive advantages for companies. Adequate information flow in supply chain is one of the most important issues in SCM. Therefore, using certain Information Systems can have a significant role in managing and integrating data and information within the supply chain. Pharmaceutical supply chain is more complex than many other supply chains, in the sense that it can affect social and political perspectives. On the other hand, managing the pharmaceutical supply chain is difficult because of its complexity and also government regulations in this field. Although, Iran has progressed a lot in pharmaceutical manufacturing, still there are many unsolved issues in managing the information flow in the pharmaceutical supply chain. In this study, we reviewed the benefits of using different levels of an integrated information system in the supply chain and the possible challenges ahead.

The present study aimed to evaluate pharmacy practice regarding dietary supplements in Tehran (I.R. Iran). So, the factors affecting on pharmacists' practice including their knowledge, attitude, and some underlying factors were evaluated. This is an observational knowledge; attitude and practice (KAP) study. The unit of analysis include pharmacies practice located in Tehran. The data was collected in 2013 via an anonymous, self-administered; postal questionnaire consisted of demographic information, knowledge (subjective and objective questions), attitude, and practice evaluation part. Descriptive and inferential statistics were performed using SPSS. This study showed that although the knowledge has a significant effect on attitude and practice, the attention should be paid on other underlying factors such as experience, pharmacy ownership situation and academic degree which might have positive impact on pharmacists' practice. According to this study, although many underlying factors such as experience, university and pharmacy ownership have impact on pharmacy practice regarding dietary supplements, the most attention should paid to knowledge as the main factor and more attention should be paid to training on dietary supplement could be recommended.