The Changing Face of Pharmaceutical Sales: AstraZeneca Offers Its Entire Sales Force a Buyout Option
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The Pharmalot Blog reported today that AstraZeneca offered all of it sales representatives—numbering 5,000-6,000—a buyout option. However, AstraZeneca prefers to avoid the term buyout and instead instructed its reps to ’self identify’ whether or not they want a package to leave the company. According to the post, an AstraZeneca spokesman declined to discuss how many reps it would like to shed, but did provide this statement:
“AstraZeneca is making changes to our sales force, which will be managed first by looking at vacancies and offering field sales employees the opportunity to self-identify whether they are interested in leaving the company. We will know the full scope of the changes in the coming weeks.”
Like many other pharma companies, AstraZeneca will lose $11.1 billion in patented-protected revenue by the end of 2012 and face stiff generic competition.
Pharma sales reps, like R&D scientists, have been facing tough times over the past three years or so. In the late 1990s, pharma companies hired massive numbers of reps, only to realize several years later, that increasing the number of reps didn’t necessarily translate into increase drug sales. The economic downturn, coupled with projected loss of revenues due to patent expiry of blockbuster drugs over the next few years, provided pharma with an opportunity to downsize. Finally, the growing use of web-based strategies to educate physicians, contract sales forces and a diminishing number of products led to the demise of the pharma rep as we know it.
My recommendation to downsized reps is to get some biotechnology training or device/diagnostic training and to try and leverage previous experience into sales jobs at biotechnology and devices companies. Both industries have enormous growth potential and the transition from pharma to them shouldn’t be all that onerous.
Until next time...
Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!
What is biotechnology training for a pharma sales rep?
The problem is that the hiring authority for device/diagnostics will not consider someone with a pharma background. They think we cannot sell, so the future is onerous.
Buyout option? April 2007 was the first month when I started going through my VSS - voluntary separation scheme and they are calling it buyout nowadays? Whatever. That VSS was offered by Pfizer and the minute I got relieved from the company my post was taken by someone else. That's odd but I believe big companies tend to make bigger blunders (their 2.3 billion legal action recently just state the point) and like your article mentioned - hiring more reps won't cut it.
And Oh! I am currently working with a big European Diagnostics company. Who say they are not hiring? As a Pharmaceutical sales rep, I believe you know how to best sell yourself ;)
The future my friend, is brighter than ever...