Big Twenty Pharma Company Changes Over the Last 18 Months: How They Affect Pharma Sales Reps

In 2008, these were the Major Twenty pharma companies:

The list looks a little different these days.  For instance, Pfizer purchased Wyeth in January 2009, Merck purchased Schering in March 2009, and Roche signed a big deal with Genentech…confirming for many a trend toward consolidation in major pharma.  Which means that there are almost certainly more changes to come.

My take:  With many block-buster products losing patent privileges, weak future product pipelines, slow market growth, tremendous litigation issues, an ever-increasing regulatory environment, and continued formulary tightening by insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies are being battered and forced into mergers, buyouts, and huge layoffs in order to stay afloat.  All that shifting and adjusting throws many revenue reps right off the boat. 

We’ve seen thousands of resumes from pharma sales reps who were already in pods calling on the same market area…so competition was already fierce when the market was wonderful.  Mergers cause even more duplication in sales territories, so pharma reps get laid off–the lucky ones get generous severance packages, but many get nothing.  Trying to get another medical sales job in this set of circumstances is the definition of insanity– doing the same thing, but expecting to get different results.  Because of the tremendous glut of these kinds of candidates searching for a position in a market that isn’t hiring because of the weak economy and other contributing factors (already noted), these candidates aren’t only out of a career opportunity, but they’re really out of a career.

The answer is for the former medical revenue rep to evaluate, retool, and readjust to this new reality.  Pharmaceutical sales reps often find obstacles when attempting to branch out into other areas of medical sales, but I have placed many pharma reps into other healthcare sales areas.  The catch:  they must accept that their skills may only get ‘em into an entry-level revenue position.  That’s a little difficult to swallow for some reps who’ve been around for a while.  It’s not all negative–most of my client companies pay more in total compensation than the traditional medical pay structure.  But they also require strong skill sets, more technical skills, and very often more nice old-fashioned elbow grease.  Other areas of clinical sales (pathology revenue, medical device sales, clinical diagnostics, imaging sales, clinical laboratory sales, hospital equipment sales, biotech revenue, etc.,) are a little harder to get into, but the results are worth it in compensation, respect, and job stability. 

If you’re an out-of-work pharma sales rep ready to start your career in a clinical or healthcare-related company that requires real revenue closers and pays for performance, apply here.

If you need personal career coaching to help you through this (and who wouldn’t?) then read this.

Article courtesy of  Peggy McKee - Owner / Senior Recruiter at the nationally
recognized pathology and laboratory revenue recruiting team of PHC Consulting.
© Copyright 2008 PHC Consulting | All rights reserved

Top 20 Pharmaceutical Company Changes Over the Last 18 Months: How They Affect Pharma Sales Reps