Pharma companies continue staff recruitment

2010-08-19

Despite the holiday season, only in August more than 20 pharma companies and outsourced headhunting companies continued to recruit in Poland.

Countrywide, Krka is looking for regional managers dedicated to sales of Rx drugs, whereas AstraZeneca and Pfizer would like to find a staff dedicated to opinion leaders and key clients. Among other big names, Polfa Warszawa aims to enlarge its technology personnel in its R&D hub.

Majority of the companies seek medical representatives, with Polpharma among the most well-known names; other companies include Polfarmex, FSP Galena and SymPhar, which is creating a sales force in its neurology, psychiatry and urogynaecology line. APC Instytut, Zaklady Farmaceutyczne Unia SP, Viderpol and Tactica Pharmaceuticals would like to grow their pool of representatives specialising in the pharmacy market. Apteka Medyczna has posted job offers for pharmacy co-ordinators.


Although the large number of recruitment processes pursued by pharma companies in August may simply reflect a natural cycle of staff replacement, it might also be a sign of improving conditions in the sector. This interpretation is supported by the fact that in the first half of 2010 (latest Central Statistical Office data available), drug manufacturers slashed jobs on a major scale, shedding 5% of their workforces compared the same period a year ago. These job-cutting measures were accompanied by a substantial slowdown in the Polish pharma market. According to PharmaExpert, in H1 2010, the value of retail pharmacy sales rose by a meagre 1.1% y-o-y, down from the robust 8.3% growth rate achieved in the crisis-ridden 2009 (indeed, the pharma sector was the only sub-sector of manufacturing to report a positive net job creation rate of 1.6% last year). And whilst pharmacy sales figures for the month of July were less than impressive (an increase of 3.5% y-o-y), the ongoing gradual improvement of overall economic conditions may be making pharma firms more upbeat about the future and more willing to take on new staff, as they seek to better position themselves to grow market share once demand recovers.

Paweł Sionko
Senior Economist
PMR Publications