Healthy Skepticism Library item: 17047

Warning: This library includes all items relevant to health product marketing that we are aware of regardless of quality. Often we do not agree with all or part of the contents.

Publication type: Electronic Source

Goldstein J
Pfizer’s Looking for More Sales Reps. In China.
The Wall Street Journal Blog 2010 Jan 19
http://blogs.wsj.com/health/2010/01/19/pfizers-looking-for-more-sales-reps-in-china/

Full text:

Same song, different verse: A big drug maker is cutting jobs in the developed world and growing in China.

This time, it’s Pfizer, which said today that it’s looking to increase its sales force in China to 3,200 by the end of next year, up from about 2,300, Dow Jones Newswires reported today. The company has said it will cut nearly 20,000 jobs as part of the Wyeth merger.

Eli Lilly said last fall that it would continue to hire in China, even as it cuts jobs in the U.S. and other developed markets. Novartis is also making a big push into China, hiring hundreds of workers and spending $1 billion to expand a research center in Shanghai.

With business tough in developed markets, drug makers are counting on the developing world for growth. But that’s not always a sure thing, either; just today, the WSJ reported that the Philippine government is asking drug makers to submit a list of proposed price cuts on their “top-selling and most expensive drugs.”

Last summer, the government in Manila put price controls on several drugs, including Pfizer’s Norvasc and Lipitor. Pfizer had previously offered to cut the prices on some of its drugs there, and said last year it was “disappointed” that the government didn’t accept its offer.