Pharma Veterans

Rise of Syphilis as Health Emergency – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1035 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1035 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Korhan Erdol Credit: Marcus Vinicius Preamble While browsing through various health-related sites, I was struck by the information on the rise of syphilis as a health emergency in some parts of US and Europe. Upon further search, I found alarming facts which I am sharing here. As you will see in the following text, the factors causing the disease are also quite prevalent in Pakistan, and I shall share available data on syphilis prevalence here. Facts about Syphilis • Syphilis is sexually transmitted infection (STI) caused by a bacterium Treponema pallidum . The disease spreads through all forms of sexual intercourse, and ...

Impact of Unrest on Pharma Field Work – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1034 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1034 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: abbakar saeeyd Credit: Amine M'siouri Credit: Rahul Supra Preamble Political turmoil, such as protests and government crackdowns, significantly disrupts life for everyone. We have been seeing it for several weeks now that business activities are hampered significantly on any given day in any part of the country on any pretext. We are not just facing political unrest but also social unrest, religious unrest, security unrest, and overall law and order breakdown.  While unrest, roads closure, and business closure affect all related people, the people working in the field are particularly hit. From the daily wage workers to field salespeople, every...

Why Young, New Hires Get Dejected Early? – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1033 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1033 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: John Diaz Credit: Ivan Samkov Credit: Matheus Bertelli Preamble Young men and women, fresh out of universities join the industry in small, medium, and large organizations. They are fresh in mind and enthusiastic about sharing their ideas which they think will be good for organizations, and they try to act on their impulse. However, in a span of 6 months to a year time, they start losing hope of contributing, and instead, settle in a drab less productive routine, or they try to shift to some other workplace to keep themselves going.  The phenomenon is not limited to Pakistan, or the so-called developing countries, it is happening even in the ...

Employees’ Grievances Against and Within HR – Part II – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1032 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1032 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Mikhail Nilov Credit: Thirdman Credit: Vlada Karpovich Preamble In the last post, I gave a broad review of employees’ grievances against HR. In this post, I shall present the viewpoint of HR on the situation. This is not exactly ‘Shikwah (grievance)’ and ‘Jawab e Shikwah (counter-grievance)’, but rather ‘Shikwah dar Shikwah’. It is so because HR has its own side to tell what makes their job tougher by the day. HR Position in the Corporate HR gained much significance during the last decades. It evolved and took hold of the entire organization. Some years ago, HR reigned supreme, and HR Heads were dreaded by the line managers in many ...

Employees’ Grievances Against and Within HR – Part I – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1031 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1031 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Andrea Piacquadio Credit: Craig Adderley Credit: Yan Krukau This topic was triggered by an article in New York Times. Link at the end. Preamble In this two-part series, I shall talk about employees’ grievances about HR department/ Team/ Function. The employees in any corporate hold a load of complaints against HR, while HR employees themselves have complaints against other corporate employees and management. It appears that both parties are unhappy. In this mini-series, I shall take up grievances that corporate employees carry against HR in part I, and the grievances of HR employees against corporate staff in Part II. Birth of HR (th...

Is Your Learning & Development Functioning? – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1030 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1030 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Christina Morillo Credit: fauxels Preamble Learning and Development – L&D – is among the cardinal functions of HR. The reason is simple; it is about people/ human resource/ human capital.  In many pharma companies, L&D is either available as Training department, or worse still, as Sales Training Department. Which seems to signify that only salespeople need training which is done for products and selling skills, and no one else is a candidate for learning. Sometimes, Training department arranges external trainers for certain topics which might have come out of the standard TNA – Training Needs Analysis, as part of performance a...

Drugs Shortage and Supply Chain – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1029 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1029 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Alexander Israb Credit: Chanaka Credit: Mikail Nilov Preamble Supply chain is the major stakeholder in the availability or otherwise of the drugs in the market. It is because supply chain integrates the elements which result in availability of products in the market. Therefore, the credit and discredit both go to them. Let us examine the elements of supply chain individually to understand their role and impact, and then see how it may be improved. Material Planning and Procurement Planning Material planning is the first step. In some organizations, planning is an elaborate affair where several people work. In many other organizations, the system is rudim...

Managing Drugs Shortage – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1028 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1028 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: fauxels Credit: Thirdman Credit: Tiger Lily Preamble Drugs shortages occur due to multiple reasons, some of which we shall see in some detail. And these are not always due to disruptions in supply chain. It is also a worldwide phenomenon.  I was reading an article in INSEAD Knowledge and quote a short excerpt here. [quote] An increasing problem in Europe and other parts of the world, drug shortages not only pose significant challenges for healthcare professionals, but they also put public health at risk by making timely, optimal treatment impossible. In worst-case scenarios, patient care is disrupted. In England, pharmacists have warned that drug shortages a...

Team Power vs Star Power – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1027 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1027 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Fox Credit: RDNE Stock Project Credit: Ron Lach Preamble Stars are not just sought and pleased and begged to join in sports. Many times, it happens in the corporate world also. Star power starts in pharma companies at the medical representative level. Managers observe someone working in the field and like his style. They may hear some good word from some customer, and they may also somehow find that his sales are mostly good. They decide to woo him and hire him at a higher salary maybe. In my long observation, most of these ventures ended in failure because of these reasons: one, the working standards in every company are different; two, the sales support syste...

Next Generation Marketing Skills – Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1026 Dear Colleagues! This is Asrar Qureshi’s Blog Post #1026 for Pharma Veterans. Pharma Veterans Blogs are published by Asrar Qureshi on its dedicated site https://pharmaveterans.com. Please email to aq.pharmaveterans@gmail.com for publishing our contributions here. Credit: Artem Podrez Credit: Karolina Grabowska Credit: Timur Saglambilek Preamble The marketing landscape is evolving rapidly, driven by technological advancements and changing consumer behaviors. To thrive in this dynamic environment, marketers need to acquire a new set of skills. While consumer companies, rather non-pharma companies, have acquired new marketing tools and techniques, the pharma companies are still sticking to old ways of marketing, mostly.  There are no specific skills for pharma industry in marketing domain, though there are clear indicators in research and development. However, the present relationship between companies and customers ha...