Quality Company=Quality Product
A copy of The Company magazine article, issue No. 7, March-2009
Most Russian companies facing the crisis events start cutting their expenses – they cut workplaces and salaries, wind down educational programs, freeze until better times perspective projects. In the pharmaceutical companies» Promo-Med dealing with promotion of generic drugs, prudence shown otherwise – investments are embedded in clinical researches of their own medications, as well as in personnel education and marketing.
 Elena Palevskaya, CEO of Promo-Med,
is more than twelve years in pharmaceutical business. Her service list includes international corporations - AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKleine, in the last one Elena was named the best business manager at the end of 2000. Many of Palevskaya s colleagues and subordinates from Promo-Med were schooled the same way. Angelica Belmeseva, sales manager, worked for F. Hoffmann La Roche Ltd. and AstraZeneca. Elena Petrunichkina, financial manager, has a nine-year experience with a national pharmaceutical distributor Apteka-Holding (Alliance Healthcare Russia). Elena Krestyashina, medical manager, worked in F. Hoffmann-La Roche and in the international contract research organization, Quintiles. All marketing strategy of the company is executed by Elena Lifanova. Elena has been working for thirteen years in the pharmaceutical market. She has worked in the major western pharmaceutical companies, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca, Sanofi-Aventis. She has a higher marketing degree.
According to Elena Palevskaya, high professional level and experience of the Promo-Med team together with strong motivation of employees focused on gaining the best results are the factors defining the company s image making it different from competitors and contributing in the final outcome to increase in sales of products promoted by the company. The growth on the background of trends to market decline is quite impressive. For example, Promo-Med promotes a generic called Reduxine in the segment of weight-reducing treatment. Although, according to Pharmexpert s data, retail sales of weight-reducing medications increased by only by 7 % in 2008 (average growth of this segment from 2005 amounted to about 40% per year). Reduxine s growth by almost 12 times defined the growth of this market. The medication market share increased throughout the year by over two times. Reduxine has become the most rapidly growing brand of all available at this market.
However this successful example is not the only one in Promo-Med s practice. Since 2005 Promo-Med has been released a number of bestsellers including, by the way, Neosmektin, the first Smekta generic.
- Elena, what is the essence of your innovative approach to business? It is widely thought that the basic and practically the only advantage of a generic compared to the original medication is the low price. Generics producers save on clinical researches sometimes using brands marketing tricks to promote their products. In this regard and bearing in mind the unfavorable economic situation, the success of Reduxine does not seem something extraordinary.
- I d start with the fact that the price factor does not drastically affect the amount of sales. For example, Reduxine s price is not so far from the brand. A 15 % difference is not significant when it comes to competition between expensive medications. There are medications for weight reduction which are twice as cheap and available on the market. We do not save on clinical researches. Promo-Med is the only company on the Russian market which collects its own probative base for each medication promoted. Moreover we don t have enough resources to promote our products completely on our own. The company s structure is formed in the way that we may simultaneously widely embrace the market – we have actively working regional offices – and we may as well arouse great interest in professional community. While gathering scientific files for medications we publish the results of our researches in special technical books and magazines, take part in international conferences and symposia. The most competent specialists carry out such researches, having gained trust of people in the medical world.
- You are setting new rules at generics market?
- Our company has its own strategy which is completely different from our competitors philosophy. But in the end we, like our competitors as well, strive for efficiency and increase in business profitability. I suppose that with the right approach, considerable investments bring more profit than cuts in all kinds of expenses. Investments increase capitalization. Just a simple example – when we were launching Neosmektin in 2005 the company managed to collect such a huge scientific file that it considerably increased the medication retail price.
- Generics market is steadily growing, new ambitious players keep on showing up. What other advantages of Promo-Med strategy, apart from clinical researches and marketing, let the company strengthen its positions and never fear its competitors?
- The team professionalism, the fact that everyone is aimed at gaining the best result - are the factors shaping the company s success. We pay much attention to our employees motivation. We arrange constant personnel development; all employees go through long-term systematic training courses with regular tests. The experience at the pharmaceutical market, clear vision of the situation and prompt response lets Promo-Med remain the leader in its segments. We produce only first generics. For example, Reduxine was available at drugstores right the next day after the brand patent expired. The operational efficiency is quite important as well because it lets us build the pricing policy looking back only at the brand. The choice of a promising niche is another essential factor. There is a department of innovative marketing in our company that constantly monitors and analyzes the market. This lets us understand which product is highly demanded at the market. From the strategic point of view our company has staked on socially important medications. Our medications not only deal with medical issues but also let the patients improve their life quality.
- Elena, you ve got long-term experience in major western companies. To what extent is the Russian company Promo-Med interesting to you from the professional point of view?
- Oh, it s quite interesting. I, together with my colleagues, use the experience and knowledge that I gained in western companies, in this Russian company. I can say that we are a Russian company with a western face. In today s unfavorable crisis conditions we should first of all speak about Russian manufacturers. Moreover the manufacturing quality in Russia has significantly changed throughout the last years. The Federal Service for the Supervision of Public Health and Social Development has set its course for improvement of manufacturing quality in Russia. All pharmaceutical companies will be transferred to a single standard GMP (good manufacturing practice) till 2010. Currently a significant part of Russian plants has been created from scratch or drastically rebuilt and now they produce true quality medications. The pharmaceutical market dynamics show that consumers attitude to generics and to Russian manufacturers as well is changing fast and for the better. Promo-Med s experience proves that Russian companies are able to manufacture good quality medications which can successfully compete with both analogues and brands. We, professionals, are quite interested in this fact.
- Do you think that the quality of generics can be compared with the original?
- Yes, and it has been proven. We always try to improve the profile of a reproduced medication through improvement of technology.
So sometimes its quality may be even higher than the original. For example, the effect of Reduxine, a combined weight reducing medication, is softer than the effect of its American analogue. It has been proven by wide-scale clinical researches that were carried out at Russian leading scientific centers. We don t produce cheap medicaments. We promote high quality efficient medications made in Russia.
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