pharma: sky’s the limit if you have an ‘entrepreneurial’ mindset

MEDICINMANField Force excellence

September 2016| www.medicinman.net

Indian Pharma’s First Digital Magazine Since 2011

TM

Editors Note: MedicinMan was launched 5 years ago, in August 2011, as a resource for the pharma field force to grow professionally, through self-directed learning and development.

Over these 5 years we have featured articles from pro-fessionals in all walks of pharma sales and marketing - from Medical Rep to CEO; from Product Manager to Medical Affairs Directors; from young professionals as well as seniors.

In all our interactions one thing stands out loud and clear - the biggest factor for success in the profession is ‘mindset’. Those with a ‘growth’ mindset see oppor-tunities where others see only problems. Instead of complaining and spreading negativity, they take it on themselves to learn new skills and acquire new knowl-edge that keeps them ahead of the curve.

This is the ‘entrepreneur’s’ mindset, that we urge you, our readers, to make every effort to acquire.

A few months back, I posed a question on Facebook: “A question - And I am looking for an honest

answer! How many people in Indian Pharma, whether at a junior level, middle management level or senior level, would like their children to embrace the profes-sion of pharma marketing/ selling?”

The response was revealing: 94% of respondents said “No – I would not like my children to be in phar-ma selling or marketing.” The respondents included medical representatives, first-line and field sales managers, as well as CEOs and Managing Directors.

Many, to be precise 23, responded privately on my mail id as they did not want to reveal their identi-ty. Interestingly, a great majority of the respondents who said ‘No’ have come up in their careers from the position of medical representatives.

Vivek Hattangadi

IN PHARMA SALES, THE SKY IS THE LIMIT IF YOU HAVE AN ‘ENTREPRENEURIAL’

MINDSETGUEST EDITORIAL

“Vivek Hattangadi | In Pharma Sales, the Sky is the Limit if You Have an Entrepreneurial Mindset

2 | MedicinMan September 2016

I have been in pharma sales and marketing for over 40 years and have had a very fruitful career. I have enjoyed and loved every day of it.

I have not encouraged my children to take up a career in pharma sales and marketing but I would certainly not have dissuaded them had they cho-sen it themselves.

Why has pharma sales got a bad reputation?

I have often seen people blindly accepting a medi-cal representative’s job and later realizing that they were not cut out for it or, for that matter, any sales job. It could be the experiences of such people that might give you the wrong impression of the pro-fession.

Why do so some pharma sales professionals find their upward trajectories flattening into a plateau? It is because they have not continually honed their skills and have become irrelevant and obsolete. They too spread negativity in the profession.

Many successful professionals have experienced the ‘shop keeper’ like mindset of some entrepre-neurs which makes them unenthusiastic about the profession. Many such entrepreneurs hire out-standing professionals but do not engage them professionally. They do not give them a free hand to operate. The entire ‘strategic thinking’ is done by the entrepreneur himself. If results do not come, the professionals are the easy scapegoats. This leads to job dissatisfaction and a feeling of depres-sion towards the profession.

Senior professionals have also seen many start-ups closing shop within a few years of existence, contributing to the downbeat feelings about the profession.

Often, internal company politics have cut short some brilliant careers of competent people.

Why do so some pharma sales personnel find their upward trajectories flattening into a plateau? It is because they have not continually honed their skills and have become irrelevant and obsolete. They too spread negativity in the profession.

“


They too spread pessimism. But isn’t this true any-where, in any industry including the armed forces and in government jobs?!

The prevailing era of ‘transactional marketing’ has also contributed a great deal to the unattractive-ness of the profession.

Then there are the ‘Guardian Angels’ who advice against a career in pharma marketing and sales. Why? Because there is no job security! Is there job security in e-commerce? Is there job security in IT? Is there job security in the hospitality industry?

Job security is in your own hands. Immerse yourself in your tasks and get intellectually engaged. Excel by doing your job better than what you did yester-day. Become better every day through new learn-ing’s and applying these at the workplace.

Learning new skills is a perpetual exercise. This will not only make your job secure in your cur-rent organization, but competing companies and headhunters will be after you with lucrative offers. Develop a strong sense of self-accountability and self-motivation to succeed wherever you are. Build up an entrepreneurial mindset. That alone is your job security.

Pharma Sales and Marketing - Develop-ing an Entrepreneurial MindsetPharma sales is truly exciting. You can attain a high level of achievement and accomplishment as you and you alone are responsible for making things happen. It is quite an adrenalin rush when you see doctors prescribing your product and see the sales increasing.

If you are like me and love challenges, then a pharma sales career is just the right one for you. I found the job as a medical representa-tive full of fun and satisfaction. Every day was a new adventure, trying to convert tough doctors.

Job security is in your own hands. Immerse yourself in your tasks and get intellectually engaged. Excel by doing your job better than what you did yesterday. Become better every day through new learning’s and applying these at the workplace.

Vivek Hattangadi | In Pharma Sales, the Sky is the Limit if You Have an Entrepreneurial Mindset

“


And when I succeeded, I would go home and tell my wife something like this: “Ah, I have made another crying baby smile. Doctor prescribed her Colimex Drops!” I loved the thrill when doctors switched over from a competing brand to my brand.

I still remember the date, 5th August 1976, when Dr. V. D. Rawal a key opinion leader of those days in my territory changed over from Digene to Diovol after over two years of struggle. I even sent a telegram to the corporate office expecting a congratulatory note – and Mr. P. C. Kapur, the then General Manag-er of Carter-Wallace, did not disappoint me. That is what made every day of my job so stimulating.

One of the best things about a career in pharma sales is that your efforts have a direct impact on your earnings. No one can limit your income but yourself. On top of the salary, you have the poten-tial to earn incentives and get paid holidays in at-tractive destinations outside the country. The high earners in sales are the ones that work hard, work smart, build lasting relationships and gain valuable experience that can be used to command a high paying salary.

This is one industry where a medical representa-tive today can become a General Manager, a Vice President, or a CEO tomorrow. Then there are many successful medical representatives and pharma sales and marketing personnel who have diversi-fied successfully into pharma-related academics, information technology, advertising, consultancy, and have become executive coaches in other in-dustries.

One of the best things about a career in pharma sales is that your efforts have a direct impact on your earnings. No one can limit your income – but yourself... The high earners in sales are the ones that work hard, work smart, build lasting relationships and gain valuable experience that can be used to command a high paying salary.


5 | MedicinMan September

Pharma sales and marketing is not really unat-tractive, as is made out to be. Pharma sales can become a popular career choice for job-seek-ers. It offers excellent potential - in career growth, income, and many other benefits. It is a ‘recession-free’ industry. The population is in-creasing and so is longevity of life. The unhealthy life style of youngsters is here to stay.

Not only is the pharma industry a large, stable, and growing business in India, but possibly the entire world. Surely, there is a dearth of talent which can be filled up by the bright and dynamic youngsters of this generation. M


Vivek Hattangadi is a Consultant in Pharma Brand Management and Sales Training at The En-ablers. He is also visiting faculty at CIPM Calcutta (Vidyasagar University) for their MBA course in

Pharmaceutical [email protected]

“Not only is the pharma industry a large, stable, and growing business in India, but possibly the entire world. Surely, there is a dearth of talent which can be filled up by the bright and dynamic youngsters of this generation.

NATIONAL SEMINAR ON UCPMP: “BUILDING BRANDS - BUILDING A FUTURE”

KEYNOTE ADDRESS SPEAKERS

Shri. Sudhansh Pant, IASJoint Secretary, Dept. of Pharmaceuticals,Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers, GoI

Dr. Ganesh NayakExec. Director and CEO,

Zydus Cadila

Samir RaiNational Sales Manager,

Meyer Organics

Dr. H. N. RavindraExecutive Committee Member,Indian Medical Council, Delhi

Anup SoansEditor - MedicinMan

CONTENTS

Our mission is the collective improvement of the

pharma sales and marketing ecosystem - leading

to better relationships with doctors and better out-

comes for patients.

MedicinMan Volume 6 Issue 9 | September 2016

Editor and Publisher

Anup Soans

Chief Mentor

K. Hariram

Editorial Board

Salil Kallianpur; Prof. Vivek Hattangadi; Shashin Bodawala; Hanno Wolfram; Renie McClay

Executive Editor

Joshua Soans

Letters to the Editor: [email protected]

1. Guest Editorial: In Pharma Sales, The Sky is the Limit if You Have an ‘Entrepreneurial’ Mindset ..............................................................1

The biggest factor for success in the profession is ‘mindset’. Those with a ‘growth’ mindset see opportunities where others see only problems.

Vivek Hattangadi

2. Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities for Indian Pharma ....................9

A very unique set of challenges but an ocean of untapped opportunity, make rural markets an exciting place for resourceful pharma marketers.

Chandan Kumar

3. Book Review: The Three Box Solution by Vijay Govindarajan.....................................................16

International strategy guru Vijay Govindarajan on how to effectively manage the present without losing sight of the future.

Reviewed by K. Hariram

4. #Finding60InIndia: the Campaign to Raise Progeria Awareness in India .............................19

How an integrated media campaign helped identify children living with Progeria in India - a disease that affects 1 in 20 million people.

Preeti Mohile

5. Properties of a Highly Effective Leader: Learning from Pharmacology..........................24

What the properties of chemical substances can teach us about effective leadership.

Mrudul Kansara


Connect with Anup on LinkedIn | Facebook | Twitter

Anup Soans is an L&D Facilitator, Author, Pharma Consultant.

Visit: anupsoans.com

Meet the editor

http://www.anupsoans.com

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MEDICINMANField Force excellence

LEARNING ON-THE-GO WITH THE THOUGHT LEADERS OF PHARMA

NOW AVAILABLE ON

(click on the books to purchase on flipkart)

SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager is a tool to help pharma pro-fessionals transition from super salesmen to great front-line managers and leaders. The book will equip front-line managers to Manage, Coach, Motivate and Lead their teams to deliver outstanding performance. An engaging read, filled with examples and illustrations, SuperVision for the SuperWiser Front-line Manager has been used by thousands of managers across the industry.

HardKnocks for the GreenHorn is a specially crafted training manual to enable Medical Representatives to gain the Knowledge, Skills and Attitude needed to succeed in the competitive arena of pharma field sales. Medical Representatives joining the field are often not aware about the key success factors of their job and as a result they get discouraged when things don’t go as planned. HardKnocks for the GreenHorn is a powerful learning and motivational tool for field sales managers to build their sales teams.

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The Indian pharma market is growing at rapid pace compared to pharma markets in other parts of the world. Major cities and Tier II and

III cities account for approximately 60 percent of the total sales volume and revenue.

As pharma marketers we can’t ignore the rural mar-kets, be it prescription or OTC products. However, though there is a huge potential in the rural market it remains largely untapped because it has a completely unique set of challenges.

CHALLENGESThere are many pharma companies operating in the rural market, but their approach or the understanding of the market is often misguided; they might be hap-py with their efforts, but it would not have resulted in much success. I will be discussing the core challenges of pharma marketing in a rural setting.

RURAL MARKETING: CHALLENGES AND OPPORTUNITIES FOR INDIAN PHARMAA very unique set of challenges but an ocean of untapped opportunity, make rural markets an exciting place for resourceful pharma marketers.

Chandan Kumar

“1. Undefined Distribution EcosystemCompanies’ biggest challenge in rural market is the supply chain mechanism as Pharma faces a deficit of financially sound wholesalers in rural ar-eas, which makes distribution work a painstaking task. Stocks are distributed via wholesalers from the main cities, and because of unavailability of pharmacies near clinics, doctors often have to dis-pense the prescriptions themselves. Due to such an undefined ecosystem, both the distribution of stocks and the collection of payments becomes a challenge for companies.

2. Poor AccessibilityAnother major road block Pharma companies face is the distance and poor infrastructure. In order to achieve operational effectiveness and coverage, Medical Reps have to travel extensively from the Hub city to cover 10-12 doctors and a handful of retailers. In addition, Reps have to carry sales stock to far-flung places to ensure the availability of the products. These mammoth efforts sometimes don’t fetch the desired returns. Local medications and quacks are other impediments to penetrating the rural market.

3. Purchasing Power of PatientsHigh cost of the medicine leads to the purchase of partial doses, a shift to cheaper substitutes, or to delay in treatment. Because of inability to buy all the medicines due to cost, people ask for part prescriptions as well. Low-income populations face difficulty in purchasing the required doses of med-ication.


Companies’ biggest challenge in rural market is the supply chain mechanism as Pharma faces a deficit of financially sound wholesalers in rural areas, which makes distribution work a painstaking task... Due to such an undefined ecosystem, both the distribution of stocks and the collection of payments becomes a challenge for companies.

Chandan Kumar | Rural Marketing: Challenges and Opportunities for Indian Pharma

4. Counterfeiting and KnockoffsCounterfeit drugs comprise a considerable mar-ket share in rural markets, and pose the biggest challenge for pharma companies. There are a lot of counterfeit medicines which are available in the name of popular brands, such as Voveran, Betadine, Crocin, and Cosavil. There are more than hundred brands for each off-patented drug and it is difficult for regulating authorities to detect the knockoffs and counterfeits.

Moreover, lack of proper lab facilities near rural areas, inadequate number of drug inspectors, am-biguous regulations, procurement of unauthentic drugs by chemists, and lack of awareness among patients are the factors that lead to rise of fake drugs in rural markets.

SOLUTIONSIn spite of the many challenges, pharma compa-nies need to pay more attention to rural markets and should equip themselves with solutions to the above challenges.

1. PiggybackingDesigning a distribution network can be very criti-cal for a first-time entrant to the rural market. Com-panies venturing into rural markets should not at-tempt to develop own distribution networks right from the start; instead, to keep expenses down, com-panies should use a ‘piggyback’ distribution model.



“The ‘piggyback’ model suggests utilizing the distri-bution network of those companies that have dif-ferent product offerings and a good reach in specif-ic areas. Piggybacking is a non-equity arrangement where one ‘rider’ (a Pharma company) utilizes a ‘car-rier’ (e.g., an FMCG company) distribution channel and get its product distributed.

2. Reach enhancementIn order to have a good reach in any market, be it rural or urban, doctors are key as they are the pre-scribers. Conventionally, companies hire a sales force to promote their brands to doctors. Employ-ing such a strategy for rural markets is ‘high-risk’ and it would be exorbitantly expensive with re-spect to the potential returns. Some companies have formulated new approaches for reaching out to doctors in the rural landscape:

• Holding workshops or special camps: e.g., No-vartis India Ltd employs ‘health advisers’ who go to rural areas and set up health camps, where the doctors prescribe their medicines.

• Outsourcing the field operations: e.g., Dr Red-dy’s Laboratories Ltd has a contracted field force for the rural market.

There can be many more ways to reach out the ru-ral space in addition to the current conventional methods - pharma companies just need to explore and test them.

3. Low-cost branded genericsAnother key aspect is to keep the cost of medicines affordable for rural areas. Some companies have created a separate business units for rural markets. These units promote medicines that are com-monly prescribed by doctors in these markets.


Conventionally, companies hire a sales force to promote their brands to doctors. As rural markets may not fetch the desired results and it would be exorbitantly expensive with respect to the potential returns, to achieve the results certain companies have formulated new approaches for reaching out to doctors


They are creating brands and marketing strate-gies specifically for rural markets; moreover, their pricing parameters are also cheaper compared to urban markets. Pharma companies need to un-derstand that for a lower-income population they should employ a different approach to encourage consumption. Promoting unique dosing methods or OD doses has enhanced not only patient com-pliance in rural markets but also affordability and accessibility. This low-cost strategy becomes man-datory for companies entering the rural market in order to remain competitive with respect to un-branded generics.

4. Anti-counterfeitingThough counterfeiting is a challenge everywhere, the worst hit are the rural markets as there is no proper enforcement of regulations. There are some companies that possess expertise in anti-counter-feiting measures for pharma products. Counterfeits in this industry come out with better packaging than the original brand due to the high margins in-volved in medicines - hence, innovative ways such as unique ID that can be traced and matched with the manufacturing batch number are easy ways for the consumers to know that the medicine is real. In addition to that, some companies capture the de-tails of the patient when they make the verification call. Adoption of anti-counterfeiting technology will ensure the right medication to patients and also companies can keep track of their real-time sales.



ConclusionThe concept of rural markets in India is still in a pri-mary stage and this market poses wide range of challenges, such as understanding the dynamics, strategies to supply, and compliance with the ru-ral consumers. The exploration of the rural market depends on effective implementation of the strat-egy; hence, companies need to think beyond the short-term gains and resort to experimentation so as to develop a dedicated model for these areas. This will ensure fruitful return and long-term asso-ciation with rural consumers. The Rural Market in India is a sleeping giant—we need to realize its true potential! M



Chandan Kumar is working in healthcare publishing as an Ac-quisitions Editor. His area of In-terest is Healthcare Marketing & Value Innovation.

[email protected]://www.linkedin.com/in/pharmtech@pharmacrat

FFE + CEO ROUNDTABLE AND BRANDSTORM 2017will be held in Mumbai in the month of February 2017. More details to follow.

Field Force Excellence conference + CEO Roundtable is targeted at senior industry professionals in all functions. The CEO Roundtable is the highlight of the event and fea-tures some of pharma’s most well-known leaders.

Past topics include:• Practical Issues in Sales Force Effectiveness (SFE) imple-

mentation• Role Clarity from Front-line Manager to National Sales

Manager• Role of Technology as a Field Force Multiplier• Social Learning for the Field Force• Data Analytics: Actionable Insights for Segmented Mar-

keting• Role of Marketing, Medical, HR and L&D in Building the

Rx Capabilities of the Field Force• Navigating UCPMP, MCI Guidelines and other regulato-

ry issues• Reinvention of Doctor-Field Force interaction through

Digital and Social

Past Speakers include:• Sanjiv Navangul – Managing Director, Janssen India• K. Shivkumar – Managing Director, Eisai• Sujay Shetty – Partner, PwC India• CT Renganathan – Managing Director, RPG LifeScienc-

es• YS Prabhakar – CEO, Sutures India• Ali Sleiman – General Manager India, Merck Serono• Darshan Patel – Partner, PwC• Vikas Dandekar – Editor Pharma, ET• Shakti Chakraborty – Group President, Lupin• Ganesh Nayak – (fmr) CEO and Executive Director,

Zydus Cadila• Bhaskar Iyer – Divn VP, India Commercial Operations,

Abbott• Narayan Gad – CEO, Panacea Biotec• Girdhar Balwani – Managing Director, Invida• K. Hariram - Managing Director (retd.) Galderma India

BrandStorm is the annual MedicinMan event for Brand Managers. The event features thought leaders in pharma brand management addressing the hottest topics of the day.

Past topics include:• UCPMP & MCI Guidelines – Implication for Pharma

Marketing• Brand Building: Case Studies from the Indian Pharma

Market• Unleashing the Power of Digital Marketing – Case

Studies• From Brand Management to Therapy Shaping• Marketing to Hospitals• Case Study: Zifi-AZ• Field Force – Doctor Interaction through use of Digi-

tal and Social Media• How to Optimize Healthcare Communication Cre-

ative Agency Services

Past Speakers include:• PV Sankar Dass – CEO & Director, CURATIO• Darshan Patel – Partner, Pricewaterhouse Coopers• Daleep Manhas – General Manager & Associate Vice

President at McCann Health• Praful Akali – Founder-Director, Medulla Communi-

cations• Pankaj Dikholkar – General Manager, Abbott• Salil Kallianpur – Brand Director, Europe, GSK• Deep Bhandari – Director-Marketing & Sales Excel-

lence, UCB• Shiva Natarajan – General Manager, GSK• Shashank Shanbag – Business Unit Director, MS• Nandish Kumar – DGM and Head – Marketing, FD• Dr. VK Sharma, AVP at Unichem Labs

To partner at the event contact:[email protected] | +91-968-680-2244

A Structure for Leading Innova-tionIt’s a perennial problem for business:

should I focus on today’s results or should I fo-cus on building the future. Is my current success helping me to lay the foundation for the future? What happens if the world or environment changes?

What happened to Kodak films and Nokia mo-bile phones is instructive. Each was uncrowned in its own segment and, lo and behold, one fine morning, was threatened with bankruptcy. Yes, they were successful in the ‘present’ but they least realised that they were digging their own grave in the future.

In effect, “is today’s success a guarantee for to-morrow’s success, too?” Not necessarily; and what you are doing today may have even less relevance tomorrow than you might think.


International strategy guru Vijay Govindarajan on how to effectively manage the present without losing sight of the future.

BOOK REVIEW

K. Hariram

Reviewed by K. Hariram | Book Review: The Three Box Solution by Vijay Govindarajan


From Linear to Non-LinearForesight is always 80/80 as compared to hindsight which is 20/20, especially in strategy and innova-tion.

It is easy to get caught up with current needs and day-to-day survival, allocating attention and re-sources. The question is about how to allocate attention and resources to maintain the present while building the future - something that is far from obvious.

Along comes Vijay Govindarajan, a professor at Tuck School of Business with a number of best-sell-ers on strategy and innovation to his name. In his new book, The Three-Box Solution, Govindarajan offers a framework and a structure, based on three boxes, that is both methodology and mindset for attacking the dual and often conflicting imper-atives of succeeding today and preparing to suc-ceed tomorrow:

Box 1, is about managing the present — imple-menting the strategies, tactics and approaches re-quired to operate at “full efficiency.”

Box 2 is about forgetting the past — moving away from current businesses and dropping off of practices and assumptions that are becoming ob-solete.

Box 3 is about creating the future — developing new disruptive business models to ensure long-term success.

Organisations must pay attention to all three boxes at once and, according to Govindarajan, this calls for both linear and non-linear innovation. Linear in-novation is extrapolated from a company’s current activities. Non-linear innovation does not build on current activities but, instead, targets new and old customers with new business models and prod-ucts. Linear innovation is vital for success in Box 1; non-linear innovation is at the heart of Box 3.

“Linear innovation is extrapolated from a company’s current activities. Non-linear innovation doesn’t build on current activities but, instead, targets new and old customers with new business models and products.

Reviewed by K. Hariram | Book Review: The Three Box Solution by Vijay Govindarajan


The real challenge is Box 2, because it holds the key to the entire framework. In order to move from present to future, Govindarajan explains, you have to deal with the past. Toy and game maker Hasbro offers one example of how the Three-Box Solution works. In today’s world of ecommerce and digital revolution this becomes very relevant.

Govindarajan uses in-depth case studies from a variety of industries to explain the principles and behaviours needed for each box. Practical, rele-vant and comprehensive, The Three-Box Solution is another important contribution to strategy and innovation from one of the most creative thought leaders in the field.

Peter Drucker in his book, Managing For Results had clearly emphasized in the chapter titled, “Business Realities” that there are 3 dimensions to the eco-nomic task in any organisation. They are:

1. The present business must be made effective

2. Potential must be ‘identified’ and ‘realised’

3. It must evolve into a different business for a different FUTURE

To some extent, Govindarajan’s framework is a modernized version of the same thinking and probably adds relevance in today’s context.

Worth a read with some good take home messag-es. M

“Practical, relevant and comprehensive, The Three-Box Solution is another important contribution to strategy and innovation from one of the most creative thought leaders in the field.

K. Hariram is the former MD (retd.) at Galderma India. He is Chief Mentor at MedicinMan and a regular contributor. [email protected]

Progeria or Hutchinson-Gilford Progeria Syndrome (HGPS) is a rare and fatal ge-netic condition characterised by the ap-

pearance of rapid aging in children. These kids start to look like 60-year olds at the tender age of 8 to 10 years. A small genetic mutation in their DNA causes Progeria which occurs in about 1 in 20 million people. Sadly, children with Progeria commonly die of atherosclerosis and stroke at an average age of 14 years. During their living years, they suffer from aging disorders like arthritis and diabetes, greatly hampering their quality of life. Intellectually however, they are normal, like any other child, causing significant agony to them-selves and their families.


How an integrated media campaign helped identify children living with Progeria in India - a disease that affects 1 in 20 million people.

#Finding60InIndia: the Campaign to Raise Progeria Awareness in India

Preeti Mohile

Preeti Mohile | #Finding60InIndia: the Campaign to Raise Progeria Awareness in India


Due to the rarity of this disorder, not many parents know where to seek medical help and the inces-sant stares of strangers, often leads them to con-fine the child inside their homes.

A silver lining is the Progeria Research Foundation, founded by Dr. Leslie Gordon and Dr. Scott Berns after their own son, Sam, was diagnosed with Pro-geria. The Foundation has recognised the need for research on Progeria and provides parents and doctors with information, including information on the available medical treatment.

In 2011, only 58 cases of Progeria had been detect-ed globally. With the help of the GLOBALHealthPR partners, Progeria Research Foundation launched the campaign #FindTheOther150, as statistics suggested that those many unidentified cases existed around the world. With these efforts, cur-rently 131 children living with Progeria have been identified all over the world.

Progeria in India Statistics suggested that in India, for a population of 1.2 billion, there are 60 kids with Progeria. The objective was to identify them so that they could be flown to the US-based Progeria Research Foun-dation, and treated in Boston. However, with a population of 1.2 billion people, speaking different languages and dialects, reaching out and search-ing for kids with Progeria was as good as finding a needle in a haystack.

#Finding60inIndiaWith an urgent need to the spread the mes-sage and awareness about Progeria, MediaMed-ic decided to launch an integrated campaign - #Finding60InIndia - in 2 different stages.

“In 2011, only 58 cases of Progeria had been detected globally. With the help of the GLOBALHealthPR partners, Progeria Research Foundation launched the campaign #FindTheOther150, as statistics suggested that those many unidentified cases existed around the world.


The first step was to reach the smallest of towns with the help of mass media PR and the second step involved the use of social, digital media and below-the-line activities. PR helped us reach the tier 2 and 3 cities and smaller towns in the local languages, while Social Media activities helped us reach the metro and tier 1 cities.

PR activities that led to identifying kids in tier 2 and 3 cities30 plus major cities were targeted in 2 phases and the communication in both these phases empha-sized #Finding60InIndia, highlighting the appear-ance of these children so that people could identify them. Nihal Bitla was the first kid who was identi-fied from Mumbai and he was flown to Boston. Nihal then became the Brand ambassador and the face of this campaign, which helped the campaign further.

Website, Radio Campaign and Docu-mentaryPost phase 1 of the campaign, it moved to the dig-ital phase and the first step was to create a web-site for #Finding60InIndia that served as a landing page and encouraged people to pledge support for the cause. A documentary was shot, showcas-ing Nihal’s life, because audio-visual story-telling connects better than any other media.

Watch the documentary here: https://www.you-tube.com/watch?v=JxWo4k5iJpU

Radio Mirchi took up the good cause and helped spread awareness. RJ Jeeturaj ran a campaign in Mumbai for 10 days spreading awareness with Ni-hal on Live Radio. He got Nihal to share his expe-riences and feelings about of living with Progeria.



This served as an opportunity for listeners to con-nect emotionally with Nihal and his parents and to educate themselves on the condition. The docu-mentary gave a renewed opportunity to reach out to journalists and hence successful PR followed this hugely successful documentary.

Social Media Activities and Team NihalThe last leg of the PR campaign started off with Social Media activities and a Facebook and Twit-ter campaign called ‘Team Nihal’. The intention of starting a Facebook page was to create awareness and to reach out to a maximum number of users in India. Team Nihal’s efforts were not only to show-case Nihal’s life and his desires but also to publicize Progeria and its difficulties so that people would empathize with the stigma the patients and par-ents feel.

When Nihal expressed his desire to meet Aamir Khan, his favourite actor, Aamir came out publicly on social media and accepted. Nihal visited Aamir’s home and told him about his aspiration of finding the other 60 kids with Progeria in India. Immediate-ly following this coverage, the term ‘Progeria’ start-ed to trend on Google search in India.



The Sweet Fruits of Our LaborToday there are 12 identified cases of Progeria in India, a condition that was unheard of in the coun-try before.

The whole campaign helped us reach about 180 million people through PR and over 20 million peo-ple through Social Media and other digital initia-tives. The campaign initiated advocacy for Progeria and rare diseases and the Government formed a panel on rare diseases which will look at develop-ing a policy to tackle rare disease as well as devel-op and update a list of guiding principles and best practices.

Our Standpoint On the CampaignRare diseases like Progeria need as much aware-ness and research as any other disease like diabe-tes or cancer. There are over 7 million patients of various rare diseases and awareness is needed so people can empathize with them and these chil-dren can lead a normal life. Accepting them as nor-mal kids, showering them with love and providing them with hope should be the way, so that their already shortened life is filled with quality and long hours of happiness and sunshine.

This campaign won 2 awards, the CMO Asia Gold award and the Gold SABRE South Asia Award, 2016 in the not-for-Profit category. M

Priti Mohile is the Co-found-er & Managing Director of MediaMedic Communica-tions – a healthcare com-munications firm that offers integrated communications.



Reading is one of the best ways of learning. Each time you read a particular book you are likely to learn something new.

Having studied pharmacy for 7 years, and getting a Di-ploma, Bachelors and Masters, I had to refer to many subjects repeatedly. To add to this, my work involves training newly recruited MRs for cardiac products and conducting online sessions as a part of the HRD MAR-KETING team in Troikaa Pharmaceuticals – which re-quired me to refer those subjects again.

Integrating two different fields – pharmacology and training – can sometimes lead to the development of new concepts and learnings. With this in mind, I would like to share my learning about effective leadership traits by drawing on certain analogies from Pharma-cology.

In order to make it simple and easy to understand, I have kept technical terms to a minimum.

PROPERTIES OF A HIGHLY EFFECTIVE LEADER: LEARNING FROM PHARMACOLOGYWhat the properties of chemical substances can teach us about effective leadership.

Abhishek Dhama

Mrudul Kansara


Leader as a CATALYST

A Catalyst or Enzyme is a substance that increases or potentiates the rate of a chemical reaction. For example, Protease is an enzyme in our body which is responsible for digestion of the proteins in our diet. Protease acts as a facilitator which potentiates digestion of proteins. Even if proteins are physical-ly present in our body, they can only be absorbed and utilized if the catalyst (Protease) responsible for its digestion is present in our body.

An effective leader should have similar characteris-tics. A leader should act as a catalyst for improving or potentiating the efficiency of team members. A leader should facilitate the environment required to bring out the best performance from each team member. A leader with catalytic properties will be able to accomplish the tasks given before dead-lines, will be able to provide work-life balance to his team and ultimately will create a win-win-win situation for him, the team as well as for the orga-nization.

A good example of an effective leader with cata-lytic properties is Mahatma Gandhi, the father of our nation, who acted as a catalyst for all Indians to fight for freedom, and brought together the en-tire country which ultimately earned India freedom from British rule.

Leader as an AGONIST and not ANTAG-ONIST

An agonist means any substance (drug) which has both affinity (ability to bind to a site) and intrinsic activity (ability to produce therapeutic response). Example – Tramadol (Zyrotram P Rapid) is an ag-onist. It binds with opioid receptors (affinity) and provides pain relief (intrinsic activity).

Mrudul Kansara | Properties of a Highly Effective Leader: Learning from Pharmacology

“A leader with catalytic properties will be able to accomplish the tasks given before the deadline, will be able to provide work-life balance to his team and ultimately will create a win-win-win situation for him, his team as well as for the organization.


An antagonist is any substance which has only affinity but no intrinsic activity. Example – Telmis-artan (Telmikaa) is an antagonist. It binds with a receptor and blocks it and does not allow other substances to bind with that receptor.

It is evident that an effective leader should be an agonist and not an antagonist. An agonistic leader is one who has not only developed strong bonding among team members but also favors and facili-tates the growth and development of team mem-bers. An agonistic leader gives the team credit for their successes.

On the other hand, an antagonistic leader blocks the growth and success of his sub-ordinates. An antagonistic leader takes full credit for success and does not allow anyone to grow. He is always insecure about his position and ends up losing the trust and support of his team members.

True Leaders exhibit SYNERGY

Synergy/Synergistic action is when two drugs used in combination, exhibit better therapeutic effects than if used individually. For example, Dynapar tablet (Diclofenac + Paracetamol) exhibits better therapeutic effect than the individual drugs.

A true leader should be synergistic with team members. Leaders should always try to add val-ue to sub-ordinates’ work, guide them to perform better, encourage them to learn new things and constantly work to improve on their strengths and weaknesses. In a nut shell, when a leader joins his team, it should result in more productive work rather than fault-finding and blame games.

“... an effective leader should be an agonist and not an antagonist. An agonistic leader is the one who has not only developed strong bonding among team members but also favors and facilitates the growth and development of his team members. An agonistic leader gives his team credit for their successes.



Leader as an ABSORBENT

An absorbent is a substance which has the ability to soak up liquid.

An effective leader is a cushion between superiors and sub-ordinates, who absorbs the extra pressure or extra work load and acts as a soothing agent who streamlines tasks and does not make the team feel the heat of extra work load or pressure. An ab-sorbent leader also acts the other way, calming and inspiring sub-ordinates to work with dedication in case of any dissatisfaction among team members. A leader acts as a bridge between the organization and sub-ordinates, constantly working for the wel-fare of the team and organization.

Allow me share with you an example from my own life. During my two years and one month experi-ence in pharma sales, I worked under two bosses. My first boss might not have been very good with his medical knowledge, but he was very empathet-ic and was a good ‘absorbent’. I was always treat-ed as an important member of his team. I never felt sales pressure and my job was full of joy and achieving targets became a habit.

Exactly opposite to his predecessor, my second boss was technically sound but had a very low emotional quotient. He would get upset with us when the task was not achieved, blamed team members for failures, and had only one technique for achieving things – putting pressure. The second boss did not understand this important trait of a leader. The team’s performance started deteriorat-ing and gradually team started breaking up.

“An effective leader is a cushion between superiors and sub-ordinates, who absorbs the extra pressure or extra work load and acts as a soothing agent who streamlines the tasks and does not allow the team to feel the heat of extra work load or pressure.



A COMPATIBLE Leader

Compatibility is when two drugs, given in combi-nation, are able to produce beneficial effects with-out any unwanted reactions or problems. When two incompatible drugs are combined, they either damage the formulation or produce unwanted side-effects.

A good leader is the one who is compatible with his team members. Compatibility in this context can be related with managers having sympathy, empathy, harmony, rapport, togetherness, agree-ment etc. It cannot get any better, than when team members have a feeling that their leader is one among them and not an outsider. Imagine a situa-tion where leader and subordinates are incompati-ble with each other. It will either break the team or it will become a liability for the organization, end-ing up in lose-lose situation.

To illustrate this property, I would like to share one more personal experience. In college, I was the cap-tain of our cricket team. During diploma studies, we turned out to be the champions of our college. Lat-er on few of my cricket team mates including me joined the same college for graduation and again wanted to make our mark in cricket. However only six team members from our previous team joined that college. So we thought of adding five other good players from our new class to make a strong team, ignoring our diploma class mates who also joined the college, but were not a part of our earli-er team. They were reasonable cricket players and shared a better bonding with us.

This led to them forming a team of their own and that new team defeated us consecutively for three years. It was only after few years that I realized that the old and new players of our team, myself includ-ed, were not compatible with each other. We were better players on paper but our compatibility and team bonding were not comparable to our oppo-nents.

“A great leader’s courage to fulfill his vision comes from PASSION, not POSITION.” – JOHN MAXWELL M

Mrudul Kansara is Asst. Man-ager, HRD - Marketing at Troikaa Pharmaceuticals Limited.


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