Pharma firms hiring matriculates as medical reps

If a science or a B Pharm degree was the minimum requirement for the job of a medical representative some years ago, acute manpower crisis and inability to penetrate rural areas have forced the phramaceutical industry to employ even matriculates as medical representatives (MRs).

Currently, from the 375-odd pharmacy colleges in the country, about 21,000 D Pharm graduates, 8,000 B.Pharm graduates and 600 M Pharm graduates join the industry every year. Since most of the current B Pharm graduates get easy placements in production and research and development divisions of pharma companies, with salaries ranging between Rs 10,000 and Rs 20,000 per month, most of them do not prefer the more difficult job of a salesman.

Attractive salaries offered by sunrise sectors such as BPOs, insurance, retail and similar businesses have also resulted in the waning interest in the sales job with pharmaceutical companies, said industry sources.

On an average, an entry-level medical representative receives a salary of only Rs 5,000 per month with a maximum of Rs 100 per day as allowances. Some of the major pharma companies, which fixes targets of up to Rs 4 lakh a month, offer their representatives a small fixed percentage as incentive for achieving their targets. The gross entry level salary of an MR with multinational companies was only Rs 9,000 to Rs 10,000 per month, said Ramesh Sunder, an office bearer of the Federation of Medical Representatives Association of India (FMRAI).

According to Sunder, close to one lakh people are working as MRs in the country.

According to a top level HR executive with Wockhardt, the company is even considering to dilute its HR policy to recruit BA or D.Pharm graduates as medical representatives. Wockhardt, with over 1,500 MRs in the country, recruited close to 400 MRs annually in the recent years, he said.

While spokespersons of major pharma companies such as Ranbaxy and Wockhardt claim that they attract and retain MRs by providing the best industry packages, companies such as Lupin have adopted a strategy of training matriculates to crack the rural market, constituting about 70 per cent.

"We formed a rural marketing division Lupinova and recruited youth with a minimum matriculate degree from rural areas, as urban-based MRs are reluctant to travel to remote places. We gave them intensive training and posted them in their respective localities. It was a big success. Our business from the rural markets of Andhra Pradesh, where we experimented with this model, grew by many crores last year. Now we are extending this to about 8 to 9 states," said Kamal K Sharma, managing director, Lupin.

According to him, now his competitors are poaching his 500-odd rural trained force, forcing him to recruit and train more youth in the region.

Further, they are also following the same strategy of recruiting local talent to enter the rural markets.

"At present, there are no mandatory rules on basic qualifications for a medical representative as it is a sales job. There are no definitions in the Drugs and Cosmetics Act on who can sell a drug to the doctor. Local language knowledge and local contacts are more important for the salesman's job than his scientific background. Even if pharma companies recruit MRs with no science background, they give them adequate training so that he can successfully market the products," said R D Joshi, director, Interlink Marketing Consultancy.

The shortage of medical representatives and attrition are major concerns for small and medium level companies. "Today, a representative's job is only promotional and his job profile is to promote the brand with supporting literature. Companies now have better promotional strategies and brand building conferences to update the doctors on the advantages of their products. Therefore, a degree in science is no longer required as a minimum qualification for a medical representative. It is true that many companies are commonly employing people with no background in science and undergraduates as medical representatives," said T S Jaishankar, the chairman of the Confederation of Indian Pharmaceutical Industries.