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Abstract:
In Kenya, pharmaceutical manufacturing companies have achieved competitive advantage, but have not maintained it for a long time, due to some challenges that the pharmaceutical industry encounters such as counterfeit of drugs, competition from generics drugs, and marketing of new drugs. Intellectual property is thought to be one of the means of protection against counterfeit. The analysis of the influence of the intellectual property strategy on sustainable competitive advantage of pharmaceutical manufacturers in Nairobi was the purpose of this study. It focused on intellectual property assets that have a part to play in the pharmaceutical industry. Descriptive research design was adopted. The study's target population consisted of 139 managers of 22 leading pharmaceutical manufacturing companies located in Nairobi. Purposive sampling method was used to select three managers in each company, thus a sample size of 66 respondents, and to collect data from respondents a semi-structured questionnaire was used. The study concluded that pharmaceutical manufacturing companies had sustained their competitive advantage by adopting and integrating in their business plans intellectual property strategy which focuses on exploiting benefits from their intellectual property assets. The study recommends that pharmaceutical manufacturing companies should monitor the activities of their competitors in order to avoid or to stop the infringement of their registrable rights.
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