Romanians devising sales strategies for pharmaceutical companies

Giants such as GlaxoSmithKline, Roche, Bayer or Eli Lilly have found in Romanian teams the people that should outline sales strategies of hundreds of million euros.

After firms with turnovers worth tens of billion euros in fields such as consumer goods or cement have recruited over 100 Romanian managers for international subsidiaries, it is now the pharmaceutical industry’s turn to promote its Romanian managers to regional positions. “The profession (management i.e.) has certainly started to mature in Romania. The overall pharmaceutical industry has gained a certain maturity, managers have gained a certain experience and have become viable in the international landscape,” said Mihaela Damian, managing partner with Stanton Chase executive search firm. Damian believes that in a multinational, relocation to another country is natural, being expected by most managers. “The tendency (of recruiting Romanians for regional positions) will maintain, but will not strengthen as you cannot leave your country uncovered,” Damian also said. The most recent name that was added on the list of pharmaceutical managers working abroad is that of Catalin Radu, whom Germany’s Bayer Healthcare, with 15bn-euro annual turnover, promoted to the position of marketing manager for one of its units in the region. One of the strongest players in the domestic pharmaceutical industry, UK’s GlaxoSmithKline group, last year promoted Crina Ancuta to the position of general manager for Serbia and Montenegro. On the other hand, Cristina Barbu has been working in the Indianapolis headquarters of Eli Lilly US giant since June 2007. Roche Swiss company, leader of the domestic pharmaceutical market, started recruiting managers from the Romanian market several years ago. More recently, in April 2009, Roche promoted Irina Berechet to the position of international communications manager for Avastin product. Another Romanian, Horia Valcu, 41, last year took over the management of the French subsidiary of Walmark Czech firm.