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INDEX
1. Acknowledgment 3-3
2. Certificate 4-4
3. Synopsis 5-5
4. Objective 6-6
2
Acknowledgment
I owe sincere gratitude towards each and everyone who have given a
helping hand in the completion of this project.
SOHAN KUMBHAR
3
Certificate
…………………….
4
SYNOPSIS
¬ For repeat visit with doctors’ sales people should go always with
different promotional tools.
5
OBJECTIVE
6
Indian Pharmaceutical Industry: An Overview
Richard Gerster
7
therapeutic value and used for production of pharmaceutical
formulations.
Market Trends
The industry has enormous growth potential. Factors listed below
determine the rising demand for pharmaceuticals.
8
underdeveloped infrastructure and the deficient legal framework
remain barriers to investment, although the government is striving to
improve the regulatory environment, with the imminent creation of the
Department of Pharmaceuticals. Nevertheless, in December 2008,
India's drug price regulator decided to lower prices of 46 brands and to
include 254 new medicine brands in the list of
On the domestic front, generics are also winning, with the first generic
drugs store reportedly opened by the Department of Pharmaceuticals
at the end of November 2008, as part of an ambitious project to set up
such stores in each district of the country. The use of generics will be
9
further encouraged by the deceleration of India’s GDP growth. In first
quarter of FY08/09 (April- June) – corresponding to Q208 calendar
year – GDP growth hit a four-year low of 7.9% year-onyear (y-o-y), as
decade-high inflation and rising interest rates take the heat out of
India's booming economy, with future risks remaining on the
downside.
ADVANTAGE INDIA
10
Indian Pharma Companies on the Acquisition :
Aurobindo acquired Milpharm /UK
Dayton HQ /US
11
India's US$ 3.1 billion pharmaceutical industry is growing at the rate of
14 percent per year. It is one of the largest and most advanced among
the developing countries.
Research and development has always taken the back seat amongst
Indian pharmaceutical companies. In order to stay competitive in the
future, Indian companies will have to refocus and invest heavily in
R&D.
Industry Profile
12
Industry Segmentation by Products
Ethical drugs account for about 60% of total industry sales, with
OTC products representing the balance.
¬ Brand-name products;
¬ Generic products.
Demand
The demand for medicine is tied to the health of the populace, which is
relatively constant over the years. Drug pricing is also relatively
inelastic, due to the absence of alternate therapies for the most
prescribed drugs.
13
Life cycle of products
The product cycle of nearly all prescribed drugs is fairly stable. After
the average 10- to 15-year period of discovery, development, testing,
and FDA review, a branded ethical drug has about 10 years of
commercial life.
Discovery
Going generic
Going OTC
Strengths
14
The drug industry is one of the most research-oriented sectors of the
U.S. economy. Over the past two decades, the industry's R&D
expenditures have risen sharply, both in dollar terms and as a
percentage of total sales. Its R&D expenditures are equal more than
21% of total industry revenues in 1997, compared with l5.9% in 1990
and l l.7% in 1980. In contrast, the average U.S. manufacturing firm
spends less than 4% of sales on R&D.
15
Weaknesses
16
Opportunities
17
Fugure. Compound Success Rates by Stages of Development
18
Prohibitive Barriers to Entry
19
In 2007, the Indian pharmaceutical industry looks ahead at a colourful
horizon, what with contract research and clinical trials businesses
taking wing, and the new patent regime opening new avenues for
players in the country.
Globally the Indian pharmaceutical industry ranks 4th in terms
of volume (with an 8 per cent share in global sales), 13th in terms
of value (with a share of 1 per cent in global sales) and produces 20-
24 per cent of the world’s generic drugs (in terms of value). India is
also one of the top five active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)
producers (with a share of about 6.5 per cent). The sector today is in
the front rank of India’s science-based industries with wide ranging
capabilities in the complex field of drug manufacturing and technology.
Industry Structure
Growth
20
fifth largest pharmaceutical market in the world by 2020, with
sales of US$ 43 billion.
Important factors that are expected to make this reality are the
doubling of disposable incomes, increase in numbers of middle-class
households, expansion of medical infrastructure, greater penetration
of health insurance and a gradual shift in disease profile and adoption
of patented products.
Consequently, a number of multinationals have entered the Indian
Pharmaceutical market. Already 15 of the 20 largest pharmaceutical
companies in the world have a presence in India. In fact, drugs and
pharmaceuticals is the eighth largest FDI-attracting sectors in India.
CRAMS
21
About 40-50 new plants (which are in addition to the plants being set
up by major Indian pharmaceutical companies) are likely to be
commissioned by these companies in the next two years conforming to
the quality standards suggested by the US FDA and the UK Medicines
and Healthcare Regulatory Agency (MHRA), making India one of the
largest drug manufacturers in the world.
The small- and medium-scale companies, which are setting up new
units, include Bangalore-based Bal Pharma, Paras Pharma, Venus
Remedies, Surya Organics and Chemicals, UnijulesLife Sciences,
Centaur Pharma, Flamingo Pharma, Kemwell, Coral Labs among
others.
The Boston Consulting Group estimates that the contract
manufacturing market for global companies in India would touch US$
900 million by 2010.
India Advantage
Generics
22
approximately US$ 20 billion in annual sales will face patent expiry in
2008. In fact, with nearly US$ 80 billion worth of patent-protected
drugs to go off patent (including 30 of the best selling US patent-
protected drugs) by 2012, Indian generic manufacturers are
positioning themselves to offer generic versions of these drugs.
Already, Indian drug companies account for over 25 per cent of the
total generic drug applications made to the FDA of US, which accounts
for over half of the US$ 60 billion market. Also, India has over 100 US
FDA-approved plants, the highest number outside the US. Indian
companies are also able to build their US generic pipeline with Indian
filings of around 408 products.
1 Pfizer 45,0838.61.8
2 GlaxoSmithKline 36,9477.18.9
3 sanofi-aventis 35,6056.84.9
4 Novartis 28,8685.517.9
5 Roche 26,5605.121.4
6 AstraZeneca 25,7414.910.5
9 Wyeth 15,6833.09.8
www.p-d-r.com/ranking/ranking.html
23
2 Advair GlaxoSmithKline 6,097 11.7
CORPORATIONS
25707.2 30343.6
TOTAL MARKET 3 100 13 6 100 13
24
a ney
2 BaB ( * ) BB B
B 60 BB
I nd i a i s r a n k ed 15t h i n w o r l d ph a r m a c e ut i c a l
m a r s t a n d i n g a t n u m b e r4 i n v ol u m e t e rm s
+7% +7%
US G erm
$249. i $ 3 1 .6 i l
l 10 Key Markets
$ 4 5 6 . 2 B il +7%
+8% F r a nc
C a nad $ 3 0 .7 i l
$ 1 3. 1 il
+5% +0%
J apa n UK
$ 6 0. 8 il M a j o r E u r o p e$ 2 0 . il
$ 1 6B0 i l
+24% 1%
Chi I tal y
n* a * $19 . i l
$8.9 Bil
+9%
+8%
+11%
M e x i co * I ndia*
S pa i n
$7.2 Bi $ 5 . 2B nr e t a
$ 1 5 .1 i l
l il
( $ 6 .B7 i tl o t
al )
•
4 S o u r c e : I M S K n ow l e d g e L i n k : M A T S e p t e m b e r 20 0 5
[the figures are not quite reliable, they depend on the definitions]
26
Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Companies
27
Indian Pharmaceutical Sector:
Challenges and Opportunities under the WTO Regime
2. To do it at an affordable cost.
28
1. Indian CROs (Clinical Research Organizations) have an
opportunity to access the $16 billion (Rs.72,000 crore) global
market for clinical trials which is expected to grow to over $50
billion by 2010. Indian pharma companies can focus on new drugs
for neglected diseases like malaria, kala azar and tuberculosis,
which are big killers in many developing countries.
29
Activities perform by Sales Management Team
In pharmaceutical industry
¬ Sales Management
Plan sales objectives-in market & to market, and monitor the sales
to achieve pre-set sales targets. Implement strategies, identify
new business opportunities & expand the existing market. Look-
after sales and marketing along with several aspect of product
management
Sale s promotion
Designs & implement marketing activities such as medical
educational programs, seminars and conferences for the doctor's ,
camps, doctor's meets/ conferences for enhancing brand visibility/
coverage & reach. Conceptualize and implement sale promotion
activities such as selection/ Targeting the key opinion leaders and
organizing CME'S as a part of market development and brand
building effort.
Relationship Management
30
¬ Dealer Management
31
Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE)
ABSTRACT
This report dissects current SFE metrics and their limitation for the
pharmaceutical industry in the United States, Europe and Japan.
The report then discusses appropriate metrics to solve these
problems and goes on to demonstrate implementation methods and
issues.
32
Sales force effectiveness is a difficult concept to measure, but doing
so can push pharmaceutical companies past today’s hurdles and
into increased productivity and sales.
33
For most of the 1990’s, increased sales force numbers tended to
correlate with increased market share. However, with the high level
of competition, falling returns and squeezed margins which are now
features of the pharma market, the approach of increasing sales
force size has definitely passed the point of diminishing returns.
Indeed, a recent industry survey8 reported that, while 44% of
executives responded that they had increased their sales staff over
the last two years, only 9% of executives thought they would be
hiring more sales staff over the next two years. As a result of such
trends, to maintain market share and profitability, pharmaceutical
companies are now placing more and more pressure on their sales
force to perform effectively within an increasingly fixed marketing
budget. Several industry experts still claim that the only proven
solution to accelerate sales has been adding reps.
But is this really still true? The industry is finally seeing that larger
is not better in all cases. The industry as a whole is aware that the
current model is not working optimally and the sales force ‘arms
race’ is showing signs of subsiding, with the ‘size sells’ mentality
now being abandoned across the industry.
The main reasons for this approach not working any more seem
quite clear:
34
¬ Pharmaceutical companies have ramped up their innovation
and time to market. In the 1970s, the period without
competition for a certain therapy lasted an average of seven
years. Today, this time without competition only lasts 0.1
years.
35
¬ Related to this, the number of personal details received by
office-based US physicians in the US declined by 13% in
200513 following seven years of increases. IMS reported that
this was seen across the majority of the major pharmaceutical
companies and was not entirely due to physicians closing
their doors. In this number, 27% were influenced by
blockbusters going off patent, and 22% were due to
withdrawals of Vioxx and Bextra and the relative shortage of
new launches in the primary care space. Two thirds of new
launches were in the specialist areas, meaning there was
limited need for additional representatives. Different therapy
areas also were found to decrease in detailing volume, with
33% decline in detailing volume for the erectile dysfunction
category, 22% decline in the proton pump inhibitor category,
and 9% decline in the lipid lowering agents category.
Although these changes account for some of the decline in
numbers of details, others came from the fact that some
companies (including Pfizer and Wyeth) altered their sales
structures and removed mirroring from their field forces.
36
¬ Lastly, the number of follow up actions required or requested
as a result of each sales call and promotional activity
translates into 10,000 follow up actions per working day and
many companies do not have the resources to capitalise on all
the leads they create.
Sales force size and share of voice are really not key metrics to
examine when attempting to improve sales force efficiency. You can
throw more mud at a wall, but unless it sticks it is a waste of
money.
One of the lures of the ‘frequency of calls’ metric is the ease of use.
Such data is relatively easy to collect and can be measured directly
against sales and market share data. A sales rep assigned to a
particular territory with falling sales volumes might then be
encouraged to work harder, increasing his or her frequency of sales
calls to drive the numbers back up.
37
Unfortunately there are a number of problems with this sort
of metric:
38
¬ Focusing on sales call quantity necessarily means less focus
on sales call quality. A sales call merely to enquire over the
physician’s golf handicap, or the state of health of the
physician’s loved-ones, is clearly not going to result in a
product sale. Likewise, sales call frequency measures favour
irrelevant contacts, such as physicians who might be easy to
talk to but do not actually have many patients who fit the
profile of the drug being marketed.
39
¬ Sales call frequency measures encourage sales reps to focus
on the calls at the expense of all else, including those
activities that may assist them in the performance of their
job. It becomes difficult to justify taking time away from sales
calls in order to take advantage of opportunities for training,
or participating in medical conventions or conferences. But as
we saw in the previous pages, the majority of today’s sales
Pharmaceutical marketers spend a lot of time and money
planning and creating messages, sales aids for use in the
sales call, technological tools to assist the sales force
(including CRM), and training for salespeople. Unfortunately,
for many of these categories, it’s quite difficult to measure
return on investment when using the majority of
measurement tools available.
40
The Problem With Sales Tools
41
¬ The CMO Council found tha t salespeople spend 40% of their
time creating their own mess aging and tools .
Sales reps are responding to the needs of the Doctors. The content
of the messages and tools they have been given do not adequately
reflect these needs.
42
Comment: To ensure firstly usage of detail aids, as well as
‘effective’ usage of detail aids, messaging must be based on the
Doctor’s most pressing patient or practice objectives and
challenges, and must lead into how your brand can help address
that need. Pharmaceutical companies must understand their
customers’ perspectives and then map how to best respond to their
needs.
Effectiveness Measurement
How does this change happen? Behaviours are key. There are core
sales and marketing behaviours that correlate with sales
performance. Behaviours that drive prescriptions in one type of
therapy category aren’t necessarily going to be successful in
another. In addition, behaviours that drive prescriptions in early life
cycles aren’t necessarily going to be successful in mid or late
lifecycle. Finally, this will also be different for primary care
practitioners versus specialists. Sales management needs to
understand what sales and marketing behaviours are really
influencing different types of doctors to prescribe one brand over
another. The bottom line is they need to know what works
and what does not during sales calls.
43
Measurement of sales force behaviours has been limited to
numbers of calls, building on the assumption that enough calls will
yield sufficient prescriptions to drive the pharma company’s
success. But this won’t do. To find out if a rep is effective, the best
way is to move beyond static call metrics and analyse physicians’
minds. Of course, much market research is devoted to uncovering
whether the physician recalled a pharmaceutical product message,
whether the physician ‘intends to prescribe’, and what the physician
thinks they think. All of this, while useful and interesting, is very
superficial if we are trying to get to the core of the real influencers.
Physicians do not necessarily know why they do what they do.
Many factors come into play in the decision process – many they
are not consciously aware of but they are influencers. We need to
know what is influencing them, even if they do not. What matters is
finding out how a rep can provide the most perceived value and
influence the physicians’ prescribing decisions. Although this is not
a precise science, there are tools that are accurate in assisting
sales managers to do this task with a high degree of confidence.
Eularis (www.eularis.com ) has developed just such a tool – the
Sales force 94.8 Analytics Tool. This metrics system helps
companies know how much their sales force is contributing to their
brand growth and overall company growth, as well as identifying
territories with the highest business potential.
44
It also helps analyse what messages and what rep behaviours have
positive financial impact, and how these behaviours and messages
should be time-allocated in a sales call. This tool collects vast
quantities of data from physicians and then validates this data
against prescribing to uncover real, rather than perceived,
influencers. Then powerful analytics are applied that help sales
managers identify what is needed and how to change for maximum
sales growth. This type of analytics is critical to ensuring that sales
force efforts actually increase sales and market share, and
demonstrating sales force return on investment. By limiting metrics
to those that measure only call volume, calls per day and market
share, companies are limiting the provable results and return they
will achieve with their sales force.
45
Learning Management System- Informetica
Pharmaceutical Companies
The Informetica Learning Management System is a popular choice
among Pharmaceutical companies to efficiently train their staff no
matter where they work or live.
Pharmaceutical companies can use the Informetica System
to evaluate new recruits to ensure they're hiring smart. The job is
highly competitive and intense so finding the right people is
significant. Each pharmaceutical company creates their own
unique weights on education, skills, and experience.
46
The Informetica learning management system has a unique set
of tools to weight, assess, and grade prospective employees. Using
this method ensures that your hiring practices are documented so
that you can recruit the best qualified employees.
The reports include creating your own adhoc reporting system, easy
to use without any need for specialized training.
Hiring smart, developing smart, and retaining your best are the key
benefits of using the Informetica learning management system. So
47
" Pharmaceutical companies don't look for one standard profile in
their sales forces. Generally, companies require sales reps to have
at least a bachelor's degree, and some prefer MBAs . Employers
don't necessarily require degrees in areas such as chemistry or
biology , but reps must be willing to learn -- and be able to master
-- science. "An aptitude in science is a prerequisite," says Nahman,
a former pharmacist. "If you don't like science, this job will be a
living hell."
48
M etho ds Pharmaceutical Companies Use
49
1. Classes on off-label uses of a drug - While a drug approved
by the FDA to tre at depression may be very effe ctive, that
may not be wher e its re al value lies. A little-kno wn fact is
that off-label use, or using a drug for a non - FDA-
approved tre atment, is complete ly legal and very
common. These off-label uses are n't publicised; it's
illegal. But in a necessa ry loo pho le, they can be taught in
class es. Your physician may be attending drug class es
where he is learning that sildenafil (Viagra) may be used
for, say, treating certain types of hyper tension.
50
you. He doesn't get those by ordering them or buying
them at the pharmacy; instead, pharmaceutical
sal espeople leave these at his office.
This isn't all bad by any means. Those free samples can save the
life of someone who can't afford a necessary prescription; and if a
doctor asks a salesman to do it, he'll leave large supplies of any
given sample with the doctor. But you should be aware that once
you take that sample, you may be locking into using that
medication.
51
4. Free magazine subscriptions t o their public ations prom oting their
own produc ts - All the large pharm aceutical c ompanies have their
own online and/or print publications wit h c hatty arti c les about
as thm a and diabet es, new discoveries tha t their cutting-edge
s cientist s have made, and even details on new off-label us es for
drugs they'v e developed.
I' m not going to lie -- I love these magazines . They are well-writt en
and have absolute cutting-edge information. However, they do
s howcase the drugs developed by the pharm ac eutic al company tha t
produc es them , and ignore any better drugs by other
pharm aceutical companies .
(Note: If your doc tor has m agazines like this in his offic e, you
s hould be able to get him to get you samples or even a free
s ubscription of your own by jus t as king.)
5. Traditional mark eting to c ons um ers, whic h gets you to ask your
doctor about new drugs - All thos e s tupid er ectile- dysfunc tion,
bladder control, and depression commer c ials do have a purpos e.
Yes, you can't just walk into the store and get them . But they make
it muc h more likely tha t you will ask your doctor for these produc ts
by nam e.
Studies by phar mac eutic al m arket ers have shown tha t if a patient
as ks for a drug by nam e tha t m ay prove effi cacious for his or her
dis ease, a doctor us ually will prescribe it.
6. Direc t- m ail mark eting - This is less useful than m any mark eting
52
t ec hniques, but phar maceutical c ompanies s till will dir ect-m ail
doctor s wit h samples , inform ational shee ts , premiums , and other
fr ee bies to get them to pay att ention to their produc ts . Oft en, this
is done by a new salespers on who is trying t o build a niche up.
53
8. Payments for consulting or giving lectures - This used to be fairly
egregious, with doctors getting a substantial amount of their
incomes from these sorts of kickbacks -- for they were kickbacks.
Today, new pharmaceutical organizations like PhRMA have
instituted guidelines that their members voluntarily follow,
preventing these abuses from happening.
Mos t payments for these things now ar e for time, and provide
about the same or les income to the doc tor tha t he or she would
gain fro m regular m edic al prac tice.
54
pharm aceutical companies ar e doing in this area.
10. Direct mark eting of all thes e types to m edical s chool and
nursing professors -- the people who trai n your m edic al providers -
All nine of the above m ethods, when us ed t o mark et t o medical
s chool profes s ors, ar e ver y effective in training new doc tor s t o us e
the drugs mark eted. You tru s t your teacher s t o get it right. I f the
pharm aceutical salesperson can convince them of the effic acy of a
drug, they have not jus t gained a single not-that -lucrative
c us tom er, but rather dozens of cus tomer s in his or her s tudents,
who will go on t o private and public practic e everywhe r e.
Yes, doc tors are human. Many claim that thes e littl e - and big perks
do not influence them or their prac tice, that though they may get
s om e ver y nice gifts thes e things don't encourage them to prescribe
m ore m edications.
55
Survey of Sales force in Pharmaceutical
Industry
56
SAMPLE SIZE
57
Param eter 1. Total number of Doctors’
comparison
10 0% 10 20
120-1
1 20-1
30 150-1
1 50-1
30 176-2
2 01-2 40
2 26-2 226-2
50
58
As in above case we found that there is slight mismatch between the
company’s requirement & the suggestion of MR’s.
Almost 50% of MR’s want the Dr List of 150-175, where as the majority of
the companies’ strategy is to have 175-200 doctors.
Parameter 2. Co re Docto r
36-40 5 1
50-60 4 4
100-101 2 2
59
100 -10 20-2
1 0% 10 %
50-6
20% 20 -24
25 -30
31 -35
36-4 25 - 36 -40
5% 3 50 -60
31-3 45
% 10 0-1 0
10%
T o ta l n u m b e r o f c o r e D o c to r a s
100-101 20-
10% 24
0%
50-60 25-
30 20-24
20%
35%
25-30
31-35
36-40
50-60
36-40
25% 31-35 100-101
10%
In both the graphs we can analys e that both the categories have the cons ent
at the core Doctors r equirement. And majority of them sug gest to have 25-30
core doctors in list
Freq
60 Company
MR
2
0
2
12
14
3
Param eter 3. Frequency of Core Doctors 6
6
4 1 4
0% 10% 0
3 0
30%
1
2
3
4
2
60%
Fr equenc y of Core DR. as per Compa
14
0%
3
30%
1
2
3
4
2
70%
61
Parameter 4. Call Averages
0%
8
20%
8
10
12
13
14
10
80%
Call Average Suggeste by MR
14 8
10% 0%
13
10% Call
Average Company MR
8
10
10
8 0 4
50%
12
13
10 10 16
14
12 12 6 0
30%
13 2 0
Call Average required by
Company 14 2 0
62
Parameter 5. No of Retailer
12
10 0%
20%
4
8 4
5
0% 40%
6
8
6 10
20% 12
5
20%
No of retailers/day as per M
12
10%
10
10%
4
40% 4
No of
5
8 retailer Company MR
10% 6
6
8 4 8 8
0% 10
12 5 6 4
6 0 4
5
30% 8 2 0
No of retailers/day as per
Company
10 2 4
12 2 0
No of
Lit.
Company
63 MR
0
4
2
0
6
3
3
Parameter 6. No. of literature distribution/ day 2
4
15
0%
2
10
22%
0 2
22%
5
0 4
5 2 0
0%
3
10
4 4
11% 5
4
10 4
15 15
3 2
11 34% 2
% 0
Number of Literature/month as per MR
15
11% 0
20%
10 0
2
21%
0% 2
3
3 4
16% 5
10
15
5 4
21% 11%
Number of Literature/month as per Company
64
Parameter. 7 Important Activities According to MRs for making
good relation or to make sales
14
12
12
10
8 Most
8 7
6 6 6 6 IMP IMP
6 Average
4 4
4 3 IMP Less
2 22 2
2 1 IMP
0
1
0
Visit samples CME/S
Gifts
other
p
onseshi
Most IMP 12 2 3
IMP 6 4 2 7 1
Average IMP 2 6 4 6 1
Less IMP 0 8 6 2
In this most of the MRs feels that for making good relationship with
Doctors Regular Visits are of Utmost important.
66
Pharmaceutical sales is a fast-paced, high-turnover business that
rewards assertiveness, persistence, and knowledge.
Pharmaceutical sales representatives spend most of their business
time on the road, talking with pharmacists, hospital personnel,
physicians, patient advocacy groups, and even retirement homes,
increasing the visibility of their company’s products and the
volume of their sales. “Sell sell sell learn learn learn sell sell sell,”
wrote one sales rep, who included his business card with his
survey, in case we wanted to purchase any pharmaceutical
supplies. Many other sales reps agreed that the best reps follow
any lead, making every possible effort to sell their product. A
number attend meetings where contact with purchasing
professionals is rich, such as an association of pharmacists or a
convention of hospital administrators. This territory-oriented
business can be a hard life, particularly for those trying to
maintain their family life as well. The need to sell extends to social
functions and free time, and the already precious family moments
can erode further to the point where many reps are forced to
reevaluate their commitment to their profession. This difficult
balancing act is complicated by the additional pressure of being in
a commission-based occupation. For many, a significant portion of
their income is riding on their ability to get the product into the
hands of the consumer. So, why is this job so addictive? Perhaps
because the excessive profit margins of many brand-name
pharmaceutical products can mean enormous commissions. In
addition, products are generally consumed fairly quickly and not
stored, so old markets rarely disappear; they need regular
servicing. The second most attractive job feature that the sales
reps mentioned was the intellectual challenge the job imposed.
67
Education is the norm in this field; learning about a company’s
product line is like taking an advanced course in pharmacology
(which many do take during their initial years in the industry).
They have to be familiar with data, statistics, and issues in the
health community to be able to communicate successfully with
businesspeople and doctors. Although this job has some aspects
that are unquestionably grueling-one sales rep said he put in 184
days on the road in 1994-many love it, and “love” is the only term
that accurately describes their zeal, dedication, and willingness to
make sacrifices for their job.
68
Pharmaceutical sales representatives with a science background
have an advantage in this profession, in terms of both their
credibility and their ability to educate themselves about product
lines. A college degree is standard for this job, with many
employers looking favorably on graduate work. Useful courses
include biology, chemistry, biochemistry, biophysics, organic
chemistry, English, public speaking, finance, and negotiation
techniques. Professional education is the norm for all sales
representatives, both on their own products and on other
companies’ product lines. The ability to read a scientific study and
examine its assumptions is critical to a PSR’s success. Licensing is
available through professional organizations, but it is not required
to advance to managerial positions.
Associated Careers
Pharmaceutical sales representatives go into sales positions in
other professions-as systems marketers or service sales
representatives, for example-where their selling skills are valued,
but where scientific knowledge is less important. Some PSRs are
willing to give up the scientific element of their job in order to go
into a profession where it is easier to advance and easier to
maintain a satisfying family life.
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Sales force, the main communication channel of the
pharmaceutical industry, faces many challenges: lower perceived
product differentiation, great heterogeneity in the needs of
customers and the value of customers to the company, pressure to
find more efficient communication channels, restricted physician
access, tighter regulatory constraints, the growing power of non-
physician customers, and adversarial relationships with payers and
other non-physician customers.
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Xerox was facing analogous issues in the 1980s. Many of their
customers received visits from five different Xerox representatives,
each promoting a different product line. However, intense
competition-especially from Japanese competitors in the copier
category-had reduced perceived product differentiation. This led
Xerox to abandon its product-based sales force structure in favour
of a market segment-based structure.
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The sales force is a very effective communication channel, allowing
face-to-face, interactive communication of a considerable amount
of information. But, considering the high cost of a sales
representative's call, do all physicians have a similar need for the
extensive information that can be provided in a face-to-face visit?
Similar to the pharmaceutical industry, the traditional stock market
investment firms such as Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley
employed highly-paid professionals who provided customers with
sophisticated advice, often based on proprietary research.
However, the growing availability of stock market information in a
variety of media enabled motivated investors to form their own
preferences about where to invest. Targeting these "self-directed"
investors, who preferred to manage their investments on their
own, Charles Schwab's low-price "discount brokerage" firm
eliminated the high-cost information services and concentrated on
making stock market transactions easy.
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A face-to-face sales representative visit operates as a multi-
function communication channel, which can carry many types of
communications from the firm to physicians and other types of
customers (e.g. information about diseases, products, patients,
other physicians), and from customers back to the firm (e.g.
customer needs, perceptions, preferences and behaviours;
competitor activities). But face-to-face visits are expensive, and
some of the functions performed by such visits might be carried
out with equal or greater effectiveness at lower costs by some
other channels.
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Matching customer value and the cost of communication
channels
Physicians differ in their value to pharmaceutical companies.
Indicators of value include actual and potential revenue
generation, influence (e.g. opinion leadership) and knowledge (e.g.
advisory board members selected for their knowledge of
physicians' needs). Communication channels differ in their cost,
e.g. face-to-face sales representative visits are more expensive
than other channels such as the telephone, fax, and e-mail. The
greater a customer's value, the greater can be the cost of the
communication channel.
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Not all physicians receive visits by pharmaceutical sales
representatives. Some refuse to see pharmaceutical sales
representatives. Others are not visited by pharmaceutical sales
representatives for a variety of reasons: they may not show up on
the list of physicians, live in remote areas, or may not prescribe
enough to be worth a visit.
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Pharmaceutical promotion is subject to a growing number of
constraints, arising from laws, regulations and industry codes such
as the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers
and Associations (IFPMA) Code of Pharmaceutical Marketing
Practices and company-specific promotion codes. This should
stimulate companies to search for novel promotion channels that
are both compliant and effective.
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Pharmaceutical promotion has traditionally targeted primarily
physicians. However, the influence of non-physician customers
such as pharmacists, patients, and payers is rising in many
countries. Pharmaceutical companies need to allocate more
promotional efforts towards these new target audiences.
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With the rise in power of non-physician stakeholders comes the
risk of heightened conflict, for the interests of the pharmaceutical
industry may not be perceived to be aligned with the interests of
pharmacists, payers and others. Each party's attention may be
focused on value appropriation. For example, the price of each
individual product may become the main focus of discussions, with
pharmaceutical companies always insisting on a high price, and
pharmacists and payers always demanding a lower price.
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Discussions between senior managers at both companies led to the
recognition that their adversarial relationship destroyed
opportunities for mutually beneficial value creation. This paved the
way for a collaborative partnership, in which the two companies
saw themselves as members of a common team with the following
mission: "The mission of the Wal-Mart/P&G Business team is to
achieve the long-term business objectives of both companies by
building a total system partnership that leads our respective
companies and industries to better serve our mutual customer-the
consumer." P&G assigned 300 full-time staff to its global Wal-Mart
team, more than 200 close to Wal-Mart's headquarters alone.
Sharing a great deal of information, the team and Wal-Mart
cooperated to develop new profitable products and services,
allocate resources to in-market products and services and optimise
the supply chain. The partnership has served both companies well
not only in their relationship with one another but also in making
each of them a more valuable partner in other relationships. In an
annual survey, in which manufacturers rate the performance of
retailers and retailers rate manufacturers, both P&G and Wal-Mart
have held the number one spot for many years in a row.
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Conclusion
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Annexure
Name: Specialty:
No of doctors in list
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No of core doctors
Frequency of core
doctors visit
Call average
No. of retailers/day
Number of
literatures
distribution /month
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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The best marketing activity/strategy for launching a new product (e.g.
Symposia, gifts)
1.
2.
3.
The thing which you don’t like or you would like to change it
1.
2.
3.
( )
83