The study aimed at investigating the effect of government policies and performance of pharmaceutical firms in South-East, Nigeria the specific objectives were; Determine the extent of relationship between tax policies and competitive advantage of Pharmaceutical industries in South-East, Nigeria; Evaluate the effect of regulatory policies and quality control of Pharmaceutical industries in South-East, Nigeria; The research work was anchored on and rational-choice theory. Survey research design was adopted. The population of the study was 1881. The statistical formula devised by Borg and Gall (1973), was employed to arrive at a sample size of 361. Pearson product-moment correlation analysis method was used in testing the hypotheses. The result of the hypotheses showed that Tax Policies has a significant positive effect on competitive advantage of Pharmaceutical industries in South-East, Nigeria. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient values between tax policies and competitive advantage of Pharmaceutical industries revealed (r = 0.769, p<0.05); Regulatory Policies has a significant positive effect on quality control of pharmaceutical industries in South-East, Nigeria. Pearson’s product moment correlation coefficient values between regulatory policies and quality control shows (r = .790, at p<0.05). The study concluded that that government policies has significant positive effect on performance of pharmaceutical industries in South-East, Nigeria. The study recommended that Nigeria government should introduce tax exemptions on some specific medicines or active pharmaceutical ingredients, eliminate or reduce custom duties on pharmaceutical products and reduce the rate of value-added tax (VAT) to pharmaceutical products or specific medicines among others.
Keywords: Competitive Advantage, Government Policies, Performance, Pharmaceutical Firms, tax policies
