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Background: The potentials of artificial intelligence (AI) have permeated all industries and fields, and the advantages of AI are extensively employed. This technology offers a wide range of benefits in the pharmaceutical industry, including reducing human interventions and increasing the speed and accuracy of tasks. This can expedite time-consuming activities, such as drug discovery, production, clinical trials, research and development, and ultimately, determining a drug's position in target markets. Methods: A comprehensive scope review was performed in this descriptive, applied study on the applications of AI in the pharmaceutical industry in Iran. Relevant data were meticulously gathered and extracted from diverse sources, including various search engines, key databases, such as Medline, PubMed, Elsevier, and the Iranian Center for Scientific Information and Documentation, and information databases, reference books, and reports from the World Health Organization. These results represent our research on key themes, including AI, the pharmaceutical industry, drug production, innovation, and evolution. Our main focus lies on the application of AI in the manufacturing part of the pharmaceutical industry, with a deliberate decision not to delve into the technical aspects. This approach allowed us to prioritize a comprehensive understanding of the practical implications and advancements in the manufacturing processes facilitated by artificial intelligence. Results: The retrieved studies showed that AI has the potential to enhance crucial processes in pharmaceutical companies across various dimensions. These potential capabilities are observed in areas such as quality control, human resource management, research and development, finance, supply chain management, logistics, data management, operations management, customer relationship management, and commerce, which are further discussed. Conclusions: Pharmaceutical companies can utilize the tools provided by AI in various value-creating processes to enhance their efficiency and effectiveness. This requires the adoption and integration of this innovative technology at various levels of organizational planning so that these companies can harness the greater potential it offers with appropriate investments. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Prostate cancer (PCa) is the third most diagnosed cancer among men in Iran with approximately 4200 new cases in 2015. Considering the rapid growth of cancer diagnosis, this study aims to investigate the economic burden of PCa patients and their health-related quality of life (HRQoL) Methods: A retrospective survey was conducted on 500 registered patients to discover the pattern of care and distribution of patients in the main treatment categories. In the next step, a multi-center survey of the patients under treatment was conducted. The objective of this survey was to estimate direct medical costs (DMC), non-medical costs, and productivity losses for patients and family members. HRQoL was measured by the Functional Assessment of Cancer Therapy--Prostate questionnaire. Results: Despite high age of patients (72±9.25 years), only 53.3% of them were retired or disabled. The largest proportion of patients (54.3%) received medicinal or surgical hormone therapy. Radical prostatectomy was the main treatment for 31.7% of patients, 10.2% received radiation therapy, and 3.8% underwent chemotherapy. DMC for incident population was approximately 12.5 million US dollars/year, and the highest average cost per capita belonged to chemotherapy patients. Unpredictably, productivity loss was nearly as much as direct cost. The mean score for HRQoL was 0.62±0.16 for all patients. Orchiectomy group had the lowest HRQoL score (0.55±0.16). Chemotherapy patients suffered the worst scores in the physical well-being subscale (0.47±0.24). Hormone therapy patients had the least scores in the prostate-specific subscale (0.50±0.18). Conclusion: The economic burden of PCa is estimated approximately 25.8 million US dollars per year for incident population. When we refer to the high proportion of patients diagnosed in advanced state of the disease and higher per capita cost for these patients, policy makers should promote screening strategies to control health care costs and to increase both life expectancy and HRQoL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to estimate the monetary value of a QALY among patients with heart disease and to identify its determinants. A cross-sectional survey was conducted through face-to-face interview on 196 patients with cardiovascular disease from two heart hospitals in Tehran, Iran, to estimate the value of QALY using disaggregated and aggregated approaches. The EuroQol-5 Dimension (EQ-5D) questionnaire, Visual Analogue Scale (VAS), Time Trade- Off (TTO) and contingent valuation WTP techniques were employed, first to elicit patients' preferences and then, to estimate WTP for QALY. The association of patients' characteristics with WTP for QALY, was assessed through Heckman selection model. The Mean willingness to pay per QALY, estimated by the disaggregated approach ranged from 2,799 to 3599 US dollars. It is higher than the values, estimated from aggregated methods (USD 2,256 to 3,137). However, in both approaches, the values were less than one Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita of Iran. Significant variables were: Current health state, education, age, marital status, number of comorbidities, and household's cost group. Our results challenge two major issues: the first, is a policy challenge which concerns the WHO recommendation to use less than 3 GDP per capita as a cost-effectiveness threshold value. The second, is an analytical challenge related to patients with zero QALY gain. More scrutiny is suggested on the issue of how patients with full health state valuation should be dealt with and what arbitrary value could be included in the estimation value of QALY when the disaggregated approach used. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nowadays, bypassing agents such as recombinant activated factor VII (rFVIIa) and activated prothrombin complex concentrates (aPCC) are used to treat bleeding episodes in the Hemophilia patients with inhibitors. AryoSeven® is an Iranian biogeneric rFVIIa with homogeneity of efficacy and the nature to NovoSeven in a comparative trial. The current clinical trial aimed to evaluate the cost-effectiveness of FEIBA and AryoSeven® by Decision Analytic Model according to the Iranian healthcare system. An open label, multi-center, crossover clinical trial was designed. Patients were categorized into 3 groups based on their prior tendency to one or none of the products. To determine the premium therapeutic strategy, the Incremental cost-effectiveness ratio (ICER) was calculated. Protocol F led to more treatment success in group F than the other groups (P= 0.03). Also, there was a significant statistical difference between the mean of effectiveness scores in the groups using protocol F (P = 0.01). The effectiveness of protocol F and A were 89% and 72%, respectively. ICER cost US$ 5,146 to manage an episode of bleeding to get one more unit of effectiveness using FEIBA VS. AryoSeven. Although the results showed that AryoSeven was more cost-effective compared to FEIBA, the two strategies were undominated. In other words, both medicines can be applied in the first line of the treatment if the cost of FEIBA was reduced. The present clinical trial was registered at IRCT website, under ID No.2013020612380N1. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HPV vaccine has been recently added to the Iran Drug List, so decision makers need information beyond that available from RCTs to recommend funding for this vaccination. Modeling and economic studies have addressed some of those information needs. We reviewed cost effectiveness studies to find a suitable model for Iranian population to determine the potential cost effectiveness of HPV vaccine program based on domestic available epidemiologic data. Articles were obtained from an extensive literature search to determine the cost effectiveness of implementing an HPV vaccination program with routine cervical cancer screening. A total of 64 studies were included in this review. Although the studies used different model structures, baseline parameters and assumptions (either a Markov, Hybrid, or Dynamic model). Most of the proposed cost effectiveness models need to model the probability of HPV acquisition, the possible progression from HPV infection to CIN I, CIN II, CIN III and cervical cancer, the probability of HPV transmission which are not available in Iranian epidemiologic data. Based on the available epidemiologic data in Iran, the simplified and it requires substantially fewer assumptions than the other more complex Markov and hybrid models, therefore we decided to use this model for the evaluation of cost effectiveness of HPV vaccine in Iran. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose -- This paper aims to explore the relationship between knowledge creation and intellectual capital (IC) through an empirical study in the pharmaceutical industry. In the current economy, knowledge and IC are considered as the most important organizational assets and are the key resources in gaining competitive advantage. Design/methodology/approach -- This paper adopts the socialization, externalization, combination and internalization (SECI) model to examine the format of knowledge creation processes (KCP) and uses a model to demonstrate the relationship between KCP and IC and its components in the pharmaceutical industry. A valid instrument was adopted to collect the required data on KCP and and IC dimensions. Structural equation modeling was used to assess the measurement model and to test the research hypotheses using the data collected from 470 completed questionnaires. Findings -- The results supported the research model and revealed that KCP has significant influence on the accumulation of human capital. The performance of human capital manifests significant impact on structural capital and relational capital. Practical limitations/implications -- Given the strong association between KCP and IC, managers should define their own robust operations for knowledge creation to improve their IC accumulation. Originality/value -- This research departs from the earlier research on KCP-IC by adopting the SECI model and a research model that facilitates the exploration of the relationship between KCP and IC dimensions in the pharmaceutical industry. The research results provided strong support for the KCP- IC relationship. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pharmacists and pharmaceutical services are among the most important resources and programs in providing health for a society. Pharmacists as the key players in presenting health services, greatly impact on the health of a society and if they suffer low job satisfaction, their dissatisfaction may relatively threaten health in a society. This study was conducted to determine Iranian pharmacists' job satisfaction and additionally, some causes of dissatisfaction among pharmacists have been diagnosed. Method: A job satisfaction questionnaire was developed and reliability tests were done by some experts in field of pharmacy practice. A sample of 700 pharmacists was selected among ten leading provinces of the country and questionnaires were distributed at the continuing pharmacy education conferences. Three essential factors named "Endogenous Satisfaction", "Exogenous Satisfaction" and "Current Sense of Being Pharmacists" was considered as the main job satisfaction factors. Results and Discussion: Generally low scores of exogenous and endogenous job satisfaction were concluded among pharmacists while most of them were highly satisfied with being pharmacist. Male pharmacists were more satisfied than their female colleagues and a positive relationship between age and work experience with exogenous job satisfaction was found. Conclusion: Low levels of job satisfaction which were found among Iranian pharmacists could be considered as a deficiency of health system in Iran. Fortunately, inherent interest in the pharmacy profession found among Iranian pharmacists is an optimistic point at which policymakers could develop their modifying policies. Health policy-makers must endeavor to take other steps to issue solutions for this current problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug and health literacy is a key determinant of health outcomes. There are several tools to assess drug and health literacy. The objective of this article is to determine drug literacy level and its relationships with other factors using a single item screening tool. A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 1104 people in Qazvin province, Iran. Based on the proportional-to-size method, participants over 15 years old with ability to read were recruited randomly from 6 counties in Qazvin province and were interviewed directly. To determine drug literacy relationship with other variables, Chi-Square and t-test were used. Also, logistic regression model was used to adjust the relationship between drug literacy and other relevant variables. Response rate in clusters was 100%. Findings showed that inadequate drug literacy in Qazvin province is 30.3% and it was in association with (1) age (p = .000), (2) marital status (p = .000), (3) educational attainment (p = .000), (4) home county (p = .000), (5) residing area (p = .000), (6) type of basic health insurance (p = .000), (7) complementary health insurance status (p = .000), and (8) family socioeconomic status (p = .000). After adjusting for these variables using logistic regression model, the association between (1), (3), (4), (5) and (8) with drug literacy level was confirmed. The analysis also showed that this method can also be used in other health care settings in Iran for drug and health literacy rapid assessment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The primary aim of the study was to estimate costs of treatment for the first year after renal transplantation from the perspective of health insurance organizations in Iran. An Excel-based and a Monte Carlo model were developed to determine the treatment costs of current clinical practice in renal transplantation therapy (RTT). Inputs were derived from Ministry of Health and insurance organizations database, hospital and pharmacy records, clinical trials and local and international literature. According to the model, there were almost 17,000 patients receiving RTT in Iran, out of which about 2,200 patients underwent the operation within the study year (2011 - 2012; n = 2,200). The estimated first year total treatment cost after renal transplantation was almost $14,000,000. These costs corresponded to annual total cost per patient of almost $6500 for the payers. Renal transplantation therapy is almost fully reimbursed by government in Iran. However, regarding new expensive medicines, cost of medical expenditure is rapidly growing and becoming quite unaffordable for the government; therefore, out-of-pocket (OOP) payments are dramatically increasing over time. In order to improve reimbursement policy making under pressure of current budget constraints, the present study is providing decision makers with practical tools make it possible for them to easily compare budgetary impact of the current therapy strategy with the future financial consequences of purchasing newly proposed medicines. In other words having estimation of the current budget spending on RTT would help policy makers in making efficient resource allocation and decrease quite high OOP expenditures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – During the last decade, intellectual capital (IC) has been widely considered as a critical tool to deliver successful business in an intensive knowledge environment. The main goal of this paper is therefore to develop and prioritize human capital indicators as an important component of IC in knowledge-based industries.Design/methodology/approach – Based on an extensive literature review, a valid and reliable questionnaire was designed. In order to gather data, it was sent out to 108 participants from academia and universities who were well qualified in pharmaceutical practice. Besides statistical analysis, the authors also used fuzzy TOPSIS technique as a MADM model in order to extract prioritization of indicators.Findings – The analysis indicates that there is little difference between academic and university respondents. Furthermore, the fuzzy TOPSIS results show that participants have high concerns especially about knowledge and skills of managers and employees.Research limitations/implications – The findings offer valuable insights in evaluating the state of human capital state as a key component of IC in knowledge- based industry.Practical implications – There is an immediate need that the policy makers and corporate managers wake up to the need and start to measure and disclose the intangible assets of firms. Intellectual capital measurement is also of primary interest for top executives of pharmaceutical firms in Iran.Originality/value – This is an initial and pioneering study to develop a valid tool to evaluate IC in the Iranian pharmaceutical industry. The present study provides a new aspect of performance measurement for research-based industries in emerging economies and would be a good topic for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Agility is the fundamental characteristic of a supply chain needed for survival in turbulent markets, where environmental forces create additional uncertainty resulting in higher risk in the supply chain management. In addition, agility helps providing the right product, at the right time to the consumer. The main goal of this research is therefore to promote supplier selection in pharmaceutical industry according to the formative basic factors. Moreover, this paper can configure its supply network to achieve the agile supply chain. The present article analyzes the supply part of supply chain based on SCOR model, used to assess agile supply chains by highlighting their specific characteristics and applicability in providing the active pharmaceutical ingredient (API). This methodology provides an analytical modeling; the model enables potential suppliers to be assessed against the multiple criteria using both quantitative and qualitative measures. In addition, for making priority of critical factors, TOPSIS algorithm has been used as a common technique of MADM model. Finally, several factors such as delivery speed, planning and reorder segmentation, trust development and material quantity adjustment are identified and prioritized as critical factors for being agile in supply of API. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The increasing gap observed between market value and book value of many companies has taken into account towards investigating the impact of intellectual capital (IC) on business performance. IC has been widely considered as a critical tool to deliver the business successfully in an intensive competitive environment. Various models have been suggested to measure the numerous aspects of IC, i.e. the Skandia navigator, Tobin's Q, and value added intellectual coefficient (VAIC). The aim of this study is to examine the relationship between intellectual capital and market value of pharmaceutical companies, using the VAIC developed by Ante Pulic (2000). Six-year data was obtained from audited financial reports in Iranian Exchange Stock, and used to calculate human capital, structural capital, and capital-employed efficiency of pharmaceutical companies. The results obtained using correlation and multiple regression analysis failed to support the impact of IC on market value. Practically, IC efficiency can be applied as a benchmark and strategic indicator to assess firm value. This study is a pioneering attempt in Iran to measure the impact of IC efficiency on market value using cross sectional time series data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose – The purpose of this study is to empirically study the relationship between intellectual capital (IC) components (human, structural, and physical capitals) with the traditional measures of performance of the firm (profitability, productivity and market valuation) within the pharmaceutical sector of Iran. Design/methodology/approach – The empirical data were drawn from pharma companies listed in the Iranian Stock Exchange (ISE), over the six-year period of 2004 to 2009. The analysis of correlation, simple linear multiple regression and artificial neural networks (ANNs) were applied for analyzing any existing relationship between variables in the present study. Findings – The analysis indicates that the relationships between the performance of a company's IC and conventional performance indicators are varied. The findings suggest that the performance of a company's IC can explain profitability but not productivity and market valuation in Iran. Also the empirical analysis found that physical capital (VACA) was the one which was seen to have the major impact on the profitability of the firms over the period of study, in addition the result of ANN method also confirmed findings of multiple regression. Practical implications – There is an immediate need for policy makers and corporate managers wake up to the need to start disclosure of the IC of firms. IC measurement is of primary interest for top executives of pharmaceutical firms in Iran. Originality/value – This is an initial and pioneering study to evaluate the IC and its relationship with the traditional measures of corporate performance in the Iranian pharmaceutical industry. The present study provides a new aspect of performance measurement for research-based industries in emerging economies and would be a good topic for further research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Pharmacists and pharmaceutical services are among the most important resources and programs in providing health for a society. Pharmacists as the key players in presenting health services, greatly impact on the health of a society and if they suffer low job satisfaction, their dissatisfaction may relatively threaten health in a society. This study was conducted to determine Iranian pharmacists' job satisfaction and additionally, some causes of dissatisfaction among pharmacists have been diagnosed., Method: A job satisfaction questionnaire was developed and reliability tests were done by some experts in field of pharmacy practice. A sample of 700 pharmacists was selected among ten leading provinces of the country and questionnaires were distributed at the continuing pharmacy education conferences. Three essential factors named "Endogenous Satisfaction", "Exogenous Satisfaction" and "Current Sense of Being Pharmacists" was considered as the main job satisfaction factors., Results and Discussion: Generally low scores of exogenous and endogenous job satisfaction were concluded among pharmacists while most of them were highly satisfied with being pharmacist. Male pharmacists were more satisfied than their female colleagues and a positive relationship between age and work experience with exogenous job satisfaction was found., Conclusion: Low levels of job satisfaction which were found among Iranian pharmacists could be considered as a deficiency of health system in Iran. Fortunately, inherent interest in the pharmacy profession found among Iranian pharmacists is an optimistic point at which policy-makers could develop their modifying policies. Health policy-makers must endeavor to take other steps to issue solutions for this current problem.

Background: Pharmaceutical industry is knowledge-intensive and highly globalized, in both developed and developing countries. On the other hand, if companies want to survive, they should be able to compete well in both domestic and international markets. The main purpose of this paper is therefore to develop and prioritize key factors affecting companies' competitiveness in pharmaceutical industry. Based on an extensive literature review, a valid and reliable questionnaire was designed, which was later filled up by participants from the industry. To prioritize the key factors, we used the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS)., Results: The results revealed that human capital and macro-level policies were two key factors placed at the highest rank in respect of their effects on the competitiveness considering the industry-level in pharmaceutical area., Conclusion: This study provides fundamental evidence for policymakers and managers in pharma context to enable them formulating better polices to be proactively competitive and responsive to the markets' needs.

Background: In developing countries, the treatment of hemophilia patients with inhibitors is presently the most challenging and serious issue in hemophilia management, direct costs of clotting factor concentrates accounting for >98% of the highest economic burden absorbed for the health care of patients in this setting. In the setting of chronic diseases, cost-utility analysis, which takes into account the beneficial effects of a given treatment/health care intervention in terms of health-related quality of life, is likely to be the most appropriate approach., Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios of immune tolerance induction (ITI) therapy with plasma-derived factor VIII concentrates versus on-demand treatment with recombinant-activated FVIIa (rFVIIa) in hemophilia A with high titer inhibitors from an Iranian Ministry of Health perspective., Methods: This study was based on the study of Knight et al, which evaluated the cost- effectiveness ratios of different treatments for hemophilia A with high-responding inhibitors. To adapt Knight et al's results to the Iranian context, a few clinical parameters were varied, and cost data were replaced with the corresponding Iranian estimates of resource use. The time horizon of the analysis was 10 years. One-way sensitivity analyses were performed, varying the cost of the clotting factor, the drug dose, and the administration frequency, to test the robustness of the analysis., Results: Comparison of the incremental cost-effectiveness ratios between the three ITI protocols and the on-demand regimen with rFVIIa shows that all three ITI protocols dominate the on-demand regimen with rFVIIa. Between the ITI protocols the low-dose ITI protocol dominates both the Bonn ITI protocol and the Malmö ITI protocol and would be the preferred ITI protocol. All of the three ITI protocols dominate the on-demand strategy, as they have both a lower average lifetime cost and higher quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) gained. The cost per QALY gained for the Bonn ITI protocol compared with the Malmö ITI protocol was $249,391.84. The cost per QALY gained for the Bonn ITI protocol compared with the low-dose ITI protocol was $842,307.69., Conclusion: The results of data derived from our study suggest that the low-dose ITI protocol may be a less expensive and/or more cost-effective option compared with on-demand first-line treatment with rFVIIa.

Background: Subcutaneous injection of formalin in the plantar surface of rat's hind paw is frequently used as an animal model to study pain associated with inflammation. The pain produced by formalin test differs significantly from that of acute nociceptive tests. In this study, we first investigated the cellular and molecular mechanisms responsible for chronic inflammatory pain-induced damage in the rat hepatocytes and finally we tried to figure out whether both selective (celecoxib) and nonselective (acetylsalicylic acid) cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors could protect hepatocytes against pain-induced damage., Methods: The male Wistar rats were divided in one-, four-, and seven-day pain groups. Twenty-four hours prior to pain induction with subcutaneous injection of 5% formalin into the hind paw, acetylsalicylic acid or celecoxib was administered to the animals of similar one-, four-, and seven-day pain groups. A no-pain (control) group was also considered for each of the experiments., Results: Our results showed a significant rise in both formation of reactive oxygen species and collapse in the mitochondrial membrane potential (%Delta Psi m) in all pain groups (P<0.05). Significant lysosomal membrane damage and hepatocyte proteolysis were only seen in one-and four-day pain groups (P<0.05). Caspase 3 activity also showed a significant (P<0.05) rise in all three pain groups., Conclusion: Formation of reactive oxygen species and mitochondrial/lysosomal damages were significantly inhibited by both acetylsalicylic acid and celecoxib in hepatocytes of all pain- suffering animals. Nonetheless, celecoxib's tendency to raise caspase 3 activities, suggested that it accelerates the apoptosis in hepatocytes of pain-suffering animals. Our results showed that the pain per se, could initiate some harmful signals that affect other cells other than neurons; these malicious signals could be magnified by use of some analgesics particularly selective cyclo-oxygenase inhibitors.