Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Indian Pharma Industry
Indian Pharma Industry
Force Structure
Contents
[hide]
1 Research Objective
2 Overview
[+]3 Pharmaceutical Distribution
[+]4 Pharmaceutical Sales Force Structure
5 Sources of Information
Research Objective
To understand the Indian pharmaceutical distribution and the sales force structure through primary
research.
Overview
Indian pharmaceutical industry is on a strong growth path with the total value of Indian Pharma
industry expected to reach almost $50 Billion by 2015-2016. Out of this close to 22 billion is
expected to originate from the domestic formulation business. A key issue faced by the industry is
management of the supply chain. Supply chain in India is highly fragmented with more than 550,000
retail pharmacies in the country. According to a report by bioplan Associates, though the number of
distributors have increased by 4 fold in the last three decades, from 125,000 in 1978, the volume of
prescriptions distributed have not increased proportionally. Hence it is evident that though there is a
growth in the number of distributors and retail pharmacies, distribution is not very efficient. Also the
rural markets remain highly untapped.
Pharmaceutical Distribution
Drug distribution in India has witnessed a paradigm shift. Before 1990, pharmaceutical companies
established their own depots and warehouses. Now they have been replaced by clearing and
forwarding agents (CFAs).
CFAs: These organizations are primarily responsible for maintaining storage (stock) of the
company’s products and forwarding SKUs to the stockist on request. Most companies keep 1–3
CFAs in each Indian state. On an average, a company may work with a total of 25–35 CFAs.
The CFAs are paid by the company yearly, once or twice, on a basis of the percentage of total
turnover of products.
Stockist: is the distributor, who can simultaneously handle more than one company (usually,
5–15 depending on the city area), and may go up to even 30–50 different manufacturers. They
pay for the products directly in the name of the pharmaceutical company after 30 to 45 days.
The retail pharmacy obtains products from the stockist or substockist through whom it
finally reaches the consumers (patients).
Forecasting Model
Pharmaceutical Sales Force Structure
Typical Sales Force Structure
A large pharmaceutical company in India is usually divided into strategic business units
(SBUs) based on therapeutic areas like cardiology, urology etc. Sales force is structured under
each therapeutic area and managed by a national sales manager.
Examples of Sales Force Structure
ABC Company OTC Drugs-Sales Force Structure in India
Sales personnel dealing with OTC products have to cover all the pharmacy retail outlets in
their allotted territory. The total sales force required to cover India would be in the tune of 2400 –
3200 approximately.
Since it is not cost efficient to maintain such a large sales force on roles and the products are
from OTC, companies hire independent sales representatives at the territory level.
ABC Company Prescription Drugs-Sales Force Structure in AP State
ABC Company has 16 divisions based on therapeutic area and the sales force structure is
common for most of the prescription drugs