The Enablers Vol. II Issue VII, January 2012 - An Obituary to the Doyen of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Dear Friends,

The last of week of December 2011 and the beginning of 2012 saw two tragic episodes in my life.

My dear sister passed away at a young age of 56 under very heartbreaking circumstances; the side-effects of drugs.

Before even recovering from this shock, another tragedy struck: I lost my Guru, and the doyen of the Indian pharmaceutical industry, Prof. Chitta Mitra.

Volume II, Issue VII of ‘The Enablers’ is an obituary to this towering personality.

In his memory, I have evolved the “Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath” which should taken by those desirous of entering the field of pharmaceutical marketing profession and also by those veterans who are already in this profession. This oath is based on the Hippocratic Oath taken by the doctors before they start their practise.

In a management development program I conducted recently at Delhi, all the participants swore by this oath. 

Vivek Hattangadi

22^nd January 2012 

An Obituary to the Doyen of the Indian Pharmaceutical Industry

Prof. Chitta Mitra, the doyen of the Indian pharmaceutical industry breathed his last on the morning of 3^rd January 2012. It is a great loss to the industry in general and a personal loss to me. Two personal losses within a span of ten days!  

The growth of the pharma industry we see today can be greatly attributed to Prof. Mitra. Since the 1980’s, he took upon himself the responsibility of bringing a paradigm shift in the mindsets of the marketers in the Indian pharma industry – from sales orientation to prescription generation. His oft quoted and famous pearls of wisdom to the pharma marketers still reverberate: “The health of a pharma company is related to the prescriptions that the company is able to generate – not just volume sales.” His emphasis was on prescription generation and looked down on deals, bonus offers as an unhealthy practice and effort to ‘steal’ prescriptions of another company.

He and his dedicated team of analysts and researchers have analyzed over 100 million live prescriptions of doctors and it is from the analysis of prescriptions that his gems of wisdom emerge.

 

Prof Mitra was a strong believer in developing and training people in the pharma industry. He initiated training and development of brand managers to make them understand and interpret the data provided by C MARC, collated from live prescriptions from the twenty different specialties of doctors.

He helped the brand managers to take strategic decisions for strengthening the marketing edge over the competitors. He taught them how to evaluate and do a SWOT of an organization to provide appropriate strategic guidelines to the brand managers.

He developed newer methods of analytical methods to strategize a plan for creating a marketing edge over the competitor. He helped in distinguishing between qualitative data and quantitative data and to correlate with internal sales.

The CRM activities which are widely prevalent were termed by him as ‘customer gratification’ and have nothing to do with the health of a pharma company. He believed in the honest brand building activities which were prevalent till the middle of the last decade. Things took a turn for the worse.

In his memory I have evolved the “Prof. Chita Mitra’s Oath for Pharma Marketers” which is inspired by the Hippocratic Oath taken by the medical professionals when they graduate. Every person starting his/her career in the pharma industry should take “Prof. Chita Mitra’s Oath”. Even the experienced and veterans should take this oath and cleanse this pharma industry from unhealthy and corrupt practices.

I give the oath below and have sworn by this oath.

 

The Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath (The Indian pharmaceutical industry oath to cleanse the industry of corrupt marketing practises) I swear by Prof. Chitta Mitra, in the presence of God the Almighty, and before my family, my teachers and my peers that according to the best of my ability and judgment I will keep this oath and stipulation. To reckon all who have taught me and made me take up this career in pharmaceutical marketing, I shall, to the best of my ability, carry forward the great marketing skills pursued by the esteemed and sincere marketers. I will continue with diligence to keep abreast of advances in the science of pharmaceutical marketing. I shall hone up my skills in to get prescriptions only through ethical means. I will seek the counsel of particularly skilled and honest pharmaceutical marketers, when in doubt, whether a particular marketing strategy is ethical or not. I will follow only those methods of pharmaceutical selling which according to my ability and judgment, I consider for the benefit of the end-users, the good health of patients; and abstain from whatever is harmful or mischievous. I will neither indulge in, nor be a party to any activity which is lethal to the high standards of ethical marketing. With purity, holiness and beneficence I will pass my life and practice my art of pharmaceutical marketing and selling. Except for the prudent correction of an imminent danger, I will neither incite, encourage nor suggest to the medical professionals to carry out any research of my products on any human being who is unable to understand what he / she is doing - like the mentally challenged or the schizophrenia patients. I swear that I understand that research on new and existing drugs must have as its purpose for the furtherance of the health of that individual and not the commercial benefits of my company. Into whatever patient setting I enter, I will go for the benefit of the sick and will abstain from every voluntary act of mischief or corruption and further from the seduction of any patient for clinical trials. Whatever be the compulsions, I shall neither invite medical professionals for holidays or cruises, lunches or dinners, which may be deemed as a corrupt practise; to unduly influence the medical professionals to prescribe my medicine. Neither shall I give them those gifts which are not relevant and appear to be a bribe or a corrupt practise. I shall neither market irrational fixed dose combinations of drugs, although I may stand to benefit commercially. Whatever in connection with my professional practice or not in connection with it I may see or hear from my customers whom ought not to be spoken abroad, I will not divulge, reckoning that all such should be kept secret. While I continue to keep this ‘The Prof. Chitta Mitra Oath’ inviolated, may it be granted to me to enjoy life and the practice of the art and science of pharmaceutical marketing with the blessing of God, the Almighty and respected by my peers and society, but should I trespass and violate this Oath, may the reverse by my lot. This is based on the Hippocratic Oath taken by the doctors when they enter practice. This is to immortalize Prof. Chitta Mitra. Prepared by Vivek Hattangadi: www.theenablers.org Author: “WHAT THE PHARMA CEO WANTS FROM THE BRAND MANAGER”