The new year is likely to usher in good news for those vying for jobs in pharmaceutical industry in India, as hiring in 2011 will continue to remain robust.According to a PricewaterhouseCoopers Report titled 'India Pharma Inc: Capitalising on India's Growth Potential', leading pharmaceutical companies in the country have increased their sales forces by about 50 per cent in 2010.
The report elaborated that both multinational companies and domestic firms are taking steps towards maximising potential returns from branded generics.
"Domestic firms are also looking to increase their share of the branded generics market, with some leading pharmaceutical companies adding to their sales forces by 50 per cent during 2010," it stated.
Industry insiders claimed that on the whole, hiring in the pharmaceutical industry has grown by 11-12 per cent this year.
This includes personnel for R&D and general management, among other categories.
Pankaj Patel, chairman and managing director, Cadila Healthcare, said, "The pharmaceutical industry is growing at the rate of 15-20 per cent, and the requirement from within India and the export markets is on the rise. The bullish trend is likely to continue in 2011."
Talking about potential mergers and acquisitions that could possibly impact the hiring trend next year, Patel said, "I do not see major mergers or acquisitions happening in 2011 that would break into the hiring graph. The industry would continue to hire on a positive note."
While the organised sector in India has created around 7,39,064 jobs between January to September 2010, and another 3,94,700 jobs are expected to be added in the current quarter, according to a Ma Foi Randstad Employment Trends Survey, the healthcare sector alone has generated 260,052 jobs.
The Ma Foi report suggests that the sector has emerged as one of the largest and fastest growing services sectors in the country with an estimated GDP spend of eight per cent by 2012 from 5.5 per cent in 2009.
In the healthcare sector, pharmaceuticals has been the leader in hiring experienced staff at 83.7
per cent.
A fact that gets resonated in the words of J R Vyas, managing director of Dishman Pharmaceuticals and Chemicals who said, "In 2011 we will look at hiring people with experience in quality systems and research and development, project management and general management.
"We have not set any hiring target as of now, and will take a call in the last quarter of the fiscal." Vyas added that industry hiring in 2011 will be higher than 2010 levels.
While hiring trends are likely to remain bullish, there would be windfall gains in average pay packet size as well.
Divakar Kaza, president, human resources, Lupin Ltd said, "Various industry reports and trends do suggest that hiring across sectors has picked up substantially in the second half of 2010 with companies estimated to have created over a million jobs in the organised sector.
Improved economic conditions coupled with expansion plans across sectors continue to stoke hiring activities, especially in the first half of 2011.
Recent projections from Mercer tip pharma as one of the hottest sectors for 2011 which will pay average hikes in the neighborhood of 13 per cent."
Talking about Lupin, Kaza added, "We expanded our R&D personnel base to over 800 scientists during 2010, up from 450 scientists in 2009.
"Our India region sales force has also grown from 2400 medical representatives to around 3500 today, an increase of close to 40 per cent. Lupin is a 11,000 people strong company today.
"During FY 2010, we invested significantly in hiring, training and retaining our employees."
