By: G. P. Sinha, Editor-ICN Group
Long back when the medicines came to treat humans from illness ,there were very few companies which introduced the ethical drugs in the market.
In early 20’s treatments of many serious illness were available.By mid 1940 many companies started manufacturing medicines. Now the need arose to promote the drugs to medical professionals in various fields of medical fraternity. Here came the introduction of Medical Representative.Initially very few companies appointed Medical Representative to promote the medicines to doctors. Very soon as the companies started manufacturing new molecules the demand of Medical Representative increased and by 60’s and 70’s it became a noble profession.People started seeing young energetic boys and even some girls in the field,very elegantly dressed and promoting medicines to doctors telling the benefits of drugs. 1970 to 2000 was the period of introduction of life saving molecules.A Medical Representative gets up and gets ready for day’s planning. A medical representative refers to almost each and every pharma companies that mainly requires some professionals who are expert in the communication skill and marketing strategies with militant nature.A very hard job but very satisfying as it’s this category of people who became the link between companies, Doctors and patients. Providing all technical information about the drugs. A medical rep. Is to make atleast 10 doctor’s call and also make sure the availability of the medicines at the chemist shop so the the patients get it.A medical representative was expected to travel a lot to promote medicines to even smaller towns.The profession is very challenging but rewarding also. Well a lot can be spoken about this profession, which I will cover in following article.Further if I am to add these professionals gain lot of knowledge about the medical aspects . They have to discuss products with doctors and for that they are very thorough with the medical terminology. Now once a company introduces any product it expects sale. So the medical representative is not only responsible for introducing the product at the same time he is to achieve his sales target given by the company. He has to face the competition in the market. So to say it’s not a 10 am to 5 pm job .its virtually 24 hrs job. But there are very good opportunities for self growth in the profession. I have seen people have even grown to the level of Vice President of a company. This all about a career which is challenging and rewarding.But over a period of time the concept are changing .So is the nature of job.
