Big drug companies freeze hiring

The pharmaceutical industry is losing its sheen in the job market as large drug companies have virtually stopped recruitment. Reeling under margin pressure both in the export and domestic markets, most big players in the sector are not willing to add to their workforce.

The top 20 drug firms, which account for over 60 per cent of the 5,00,000 workforce in the industry, has reported "no growth" in their employee strength during 2004-05.

Some of the companies have enhanced their research and development wings but overall, the sector has shown stagnancy on the employment front.

Ranbaxy, which employs around 9,000 staff worldwide, says there was no change in its staff strength last year. In the previous year, the company's staff strength in India had gone up from 6,797 to 7,195.

Last year, Ranbaxy had discontinued two of its marketing outsourcing arrangements in the US following a decision to stop the sales of Accupril and another generic brand in that country.

Dr Reddy's Lab, which had a 6000-strong work force last year, has not made any significant addition to its production and administration wings though its marketing force has recruited a few employees globally.

Another pharma heavyweight, Nicholas Piramal, with a manpower of 5,989, reported a decrease of 114 people in its field staff in India. Its total work force, however, increased marginally by 109 last year.

Lupin, which employs 4,259 people, plans to increase the size of its R&D team to a certain extent but rules out any additions in both marketing and production divisions.

Lupin chairman DB Gupta told Business Standard, "Plant automation and product outsourcing have left no scope for new recruitment in production. The industry is averse to increasing the overhead cost as margins are under pressure."

Wockhardt is possibly an exception among large domestic companies. It enhanced its staff strength, from 2928 to 3500 last year.

However, multinational pharma companies by and large have reduced the size of their work force. The list includes Glaxo SmithKline Pharma (pared its work force from 4271 to 4136), Pfizer (from 2280 to 2221), Abbot (from 897 to 862), Merck (from 950 to 927), Aventis (from 1284 to 1250) and AstraZeneca (from 948 to 942). Novartis Pharma is the sole exception is this pack. It has increased its work force marginally, from 1000 to 1056, during the period under review.