Pharmaceutical product launching: a Sanofi-Aventis report

Abstract

For a country like Bangladesh, pharmaceutical sector is a great success story. The market is growing in a spectacular rate. In just five years (from 2010 to 2014) the size of the market almost doubled. Competition is fierce in the market, but since growth potential is still there the pharmaceutical companies are exerting their best effort to gain more market share and be a part of the growth. Sanofi-Aventis Bangladesh Limited is no exception. Along with other strategies like bringing up their own research product to Bangladesh market, they are also trying to win greater share of the generic market. Launching dermatological product portfolio was a decision in congruence to their growth policy. This report was prepared as an internship report to fulfill the program completion requirement of the BBA Program at BRAC University and the training work was done in Sanofi-Aventis Bangladesh Limited. In the training program, firsthand experience was gained regarding pharmaceutical product launch by working in the derma portfolio launching project. The intention of the internship training was to obtain some real world experience by working in a practical environment. Pharmaceutical marketing is a delicate task, product launching is even more. It is such a complex task that, for every marketer in the pharmaceutical sector it’s a challenging experience. The Inter-departmental nature of the jobs makes it extremely interactive. The product manager has to manage so many stakeholders that he has to be very careful about maintaining the balance. Beginning from the initial market analysis and profit-loss analysis, thorough subjective and objective decision making capabilities are required. Meeting the deadline is always important but it becomes more so in case of product launching. An efficient communication line has to be maintained between the backward linkage stakeholders (supply chain & production) to the forward linkage stake holders (distribution & sales). Also the task of managing external stakeholders, like vendor management, is involved in many steps of launching. The task of launching a pharmaceutical product is critical in the sense that, for the company, it is a step forward to capitalize growth opportunities. Launching is also a critical experience for a product manager: it requires interaction with almost every department of a pharmaceutical company. This is probably the best way of getting an in-depth understanding of the pharmaceutical marketing job. Being involved in the product launch procedure at Sanofi-Aventis Bangladesh Limited was an enriching experience.