Pharmaceutical Distribution

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Case Study Prompt

Your client is a large pharmaceutical distributor in a market primarily consisting of three main players. The three firms have a combined market share of 96%. The client has been growing via acquisitions, and it operates in four business segments which are all operated independently:

• Drug Distribution is the core business representing 85% of sales. Our client buys drugs from pharmaceutical firms and distributes them to hospitals, etc. They typically buy and sell both brand name and generic drugs, and this area has historically low margins.
• Manufacturing and distribution of medical products, includes instruments, ER kits, supplies, etc.
• Pharmacy Services is the “other” category comprised mostly of acquisition targets with no other logical home. Services include temporary staffing and owning and operating retail pharmacies.
• The Drug Vending Machines segment supplies machines to hospitals that distribute high frequency drugs to aide nurse productivity.

The client has a long history of profits, but for the past four quarters, profits, the company’s stock and employee morale have all been down.

The CEO has called you in to provide an assessment of how to improve profits.

Case Study Overview

Your client in this case study example is a large pharma company that has historically been growing. However, in the past year, profits and everything that comes with it (employee morale, company stock) has gone down. Your job is to dig deep into the profitability to determine the underlying root cause(s) and provide a strong recommendation to the client on how to get profits back up.

Consider using parts of the Profitability Framework to build your structure for the case. However, don’t become overly reliant on any single framework – consulting firms want to see you create a custom framework tailored to the specifics of the case study.

With a qualitative difficulty score of 2 out of 4, this is one of many case study examples that will get you prepped for a first round case interview. There are several more complex math and data exhibits in the case – this is a great case to test your chart interpretation skills.

ClearView Interview Tips

To do well in your ClearView case interview, demonstrate quant proficiency and comfort with problem-solving.

Need to brush up on your mental math? Use our free math drills or check out the Mental Math for Consulting course.

Consider 1 more thing for your case study practice: after you’ve run through the case (out-loud, preferably!), do an audit of your strengths/weaknesses. Then make it a focus to do drill-based practice to refine your gap areas.

For out-loud case practice with an expert, book a session with a coach today. Get more great case study examples by clicking back to the CL.