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Executive recruitment in the FMCG consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors in the Philippines

  • Publish Date: Posted almost 5 years ago

​Executive recruitment in the FMCG consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors in the Philippines

Executive recruitment company Monroe Consulting Group Philippines has hosted its latest Masterclass with the topic being an overview of the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare industries.

The Manila-based executive search agency’s key speaker was Ian Santos, the Philippines Country Manager of Mundipharma, a member of a global network of independent associated companies that is engaged in research, development, production and marketing of prescription medicines and consumer healthcare products.

Santos is an expert in the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG), consumer healthcare and pharmaceutical sectors, and has held key executive roles with leading multinational pharmaceutical businesses, including GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).

Executive headhunter Jeleica Uy, head of Monroe Philippines specialised Health Division said the event was booked out and was popular with guests. 

“The Monroe Masterclass featured the most important aspects of the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare sectors, including an overview of the sectors, trends and facts as well as recruitment trends and positions that are in high demand.”

The senior recruitment consultant said guests were interested in many aspects of Mr Santos’s engaging talk. 

Mr Santos said there was a healthy competition between multinational and local pharmaceutical & over-the-counter (OTC) medicine companies, leading to many choices for the public. He said that this is great from the perspective of patients and consumers.

Mr Santos said that as regards executive search in the pharmaceutical and consumer healthcare sectors, some of the current most in-demand jobs include trade sales roles, data scientists, digital managers, medical science liaison professionals, continuing medical education managers and medical representatives, not necessarily in that order.

He said the emergence of some new roles are a response to efforts of  industry players to digitize.

“In line with this digitalization trend, new marketing techniques now include remote detailing, webinars and email marketing; however, webinars are becoming popular as they are cost-efficient compared to traditional conferences,” he said.

“Remote detailing such as rep calls via internet calls is also an emerging marketing technique; however this is still in its nascent stage compared to other countries, and strong relationships with doctors is a prerequisite for this to be effective.”

Mr Santos said while the use of new digital channels is  a growing trend globally, in terms of the Philippine market the progress is slower as majority of doctors still prefer traditional, face to face interactions with medical representatives.

“This means that most of the positions in the industry continue to be related to human interaction, hence the demand remains with its traditional recruitment needs. However, new positions are emerging as a response to the efforts of many companies to slowly digitalize.”