The Emerging Business among Pharmaceutical Companies: The Concept of Outsourcing to an Agency

Abstract

This study aimed to determine whether outsourcing to a marketing agency will be beneficial to a pharmaceutical company. Marketing vis-a-vis to clients is one of the key elements to promote the pharmaceutical products. Under this setup, medical or pharmaceutical representatives are directly detailing to physicians to provide information about the products, while attending to their needs. The onset of COVID-19 pandemic halted these marketing activities of medical representatives, hence sales decreased tremendously. The study used purposive sampling that involved some 100 respondents through an E-survey directed at the marketing team of various pharmaceutical companies. Findings reveal that majority of pharmaceutical companies indeed practiced outsourcing their marketing activities which are incentive-based. However, respondents are complacent to fully adopt this model of full outsourcing for fear of losing their jobs. The effort of few isolated firms who employ individual medical representatives may not be enough if their motive is purely for profit. A contracted marketing agency or in a partner-agent model takes the responsibility for the delivery of the agreement under the production or incentivized scheme. While this saves on operational costs, price of medicines may increase. Consumers may suffer in the long term because marketing expenses are loaded as cost for the firm. Reduced workforce can also mean loss of jobs for those concerned.