Drug industry's ‘Corona Blue,’ “We miss our mundane life"

Amid COVID-19 outbreak, employees work from home and avoid meetings

Working-level employees in sales, manufacturing and personnel all depressed

“Life with COVID-19”

50 days have passed since the 2019 novel coronavirus (COVID-19) started infecting Korea.

 

COVID-19 has consumed the whole of Korea in merely 20 days after 31st patient was confirmed with infection on last Feb.

 

19.

 

As of last Sunday 4 p.m., 7,313 people were confirmed with COVID-19 in Korea.

 

As the COVID-19 outbreak has been lingering longer than expected, a new term, ‘Corona Blue,’ has emerged.

 

Apparently, it means the symptom of feeling depressed or lethargic from COVID-19 outbreak changing the lifestyle.

 

The outbreak also entirely changed the pharmaceutical industry workers’ lives.

 

The commuting route has been simplified to home and office.

 

To avoid infection, salespeople started working from home at early stage as they usually visit number of healthcare institutes.

 

Most of office employees are also working from home or visit offices only when needed.

 

Chats between colleagues are almost non-existent.

 

Meetings with vendors and clients are avoided as much as possible.

 

This is a scope into the lives of pharmaceutical industry experiencing small and big changes amid COVID-19 outbreak.

 

▶Sales Director of 11 years “Working from home but still restless” Director Kim working at Sales Division in a Korean pharmaceutical company starts his day from home.

 

When the number of confirmed COVID-19 patients surpassed a thousand on Feb.

 

26, all salespeople were ordered to stay put and work from home.

 

“I’m all up for not commuting…” But will they me for plummeted sales?

Although working from home is convenient without the hustle and bustle of public transportation, Kim is getting anxious day by day with the company pressuring on the sales performance.

 

He worries greatly of prescription rate dropping as he stopped visiting his clients.

 

But then again, visiting a healthcare institute is also terrifying.

 

If Kim contracts COVID-19 while visiting hospitals and clinics, all of them would have to close temporarily.

 

The damage is unfathomable.

 

His company could be reproached for not managing a salesperson properly.

 

The company seems to be encouraging sales activity through online or social media channels, but it is not as effective.

 

Pressured by the boss ordering him to thoroughly manage his accounts, Director Kim visits a hospital despite he is supposedly working from home.

 

Meeting the director of hospital was easy with far less patients visiting, but the director asked him “to refrain from visiting hospital for a while with the outbreak.”

▶Veteran pharmacy salesperson Senior Director Cho ”Cannot even visit pharmacy with a long line of customers buying masks” Senior Director Cho is a veteran salesperson with 18 years of experience in pharmacy sales.

 

He has never struggled with sales like this before.

 

Judging that pharmacy would be less exposed to the risk of infection, Cho prefers to visit pharmacy than hospitals or clinics.

 

And because of unique quality of pharmacy sales, he has much to handle at pharmacies.

 

“If I line up, could I please have a chat with the pharmacist?”

However, an ordinary sales activity is impossible as every pharmacy is in chaos selling masks.

 

Cho was exhausted for a while as pharmacists requested him to get supply of masks.

 

As pharmacists asked him not visit last month, he missed out on a month-worth of due and did not meet his target payment.

 

It is not easy to even talk about his products lately, when the pharmacists vent their tremendous stress.

 

Pharmacists are deeply worried about the plunging number of prescription from neighboring healthcare institutes.

 

They are tensed up about managing customers lining up from early morning to buy masks and dealing with the complicated procedure of supplying government-issued masks.

 

Although Cho wants to ask about the sales of a newly released product that the neighboring hospital has started prescribing, he can barely step into the pharmacy with a long line of crowd waiting outside to purchase a mask.

 

▶Factory workers “Contracting the virus means substantial loss to the company” Manager Ahn, in charge of production management at a pharmaceutical manufacturing factory, dreads to go to work these days.

 

As for factory employees like himself, working from home is a distant story.

 

If any one of the employees is confirmed with COVID-19, then all manufacturing has to be stop for disinfection while the factory is closed for days.

 

One confirmed case in the factory could cause a massive loss for the company.

 

Manager Ahn is always on pins and needles in case one of the employees is infected.

 

“It could’ve been us…”

His heart dropped when he heard an employee at a pharmaceutical company’s R&D facility was reportedly confirmed with COVID-19 infection.

 

Manager Ahn checks COVID-19 infection among the employees around the clock.

 

Some managers ask employees of who they met the day before.

 

Infrared thermometers have been installed around the facility, and employees’ body temperatures are checked constantly.

 

As some managers are threatening the employees to not contract COVID-19, colleagues are avoiding close encounters.

 

It is even more depressing to hear the news of nearby kimchi stew place he frequently visited is now not serving the lunch menu.

 

▶Senior Manager Suh at Government Affairs Team "Bioequivalence test and overseas on-site inspection all suspended " Senior Manager Suh at Government Affairs Team of a Korean pharmaceutical company has been extremely stressed out.

 

The company is in emergency state as a healthcare institute supposed to execute bioequivalence test for the company’s generic product has informed it would suspend all face-to-face meetings for next two weeks.

 

“Calling MFDS is more difficult than buying a mask”

To prepare for the revised drug pricing system coming in effect from July, Senior Director Suh has fully scheduled bioequivalence tests to be done before.

 

Suh fears the unexpected break would get longer with the prolonged COVID-19 outbreak.

 

Suh keeps on tossing and turning at night thinking about how generic drug business strategy would be affected, as well as about failing to defend the current pricing of already released generics.

 

The senior manager is tempted to call and ask about the situation to Ministry of Health and Welfare (MOHW) and Ministry of Food and Drug Safety (MFDS), but it is not that easy with the government bodies responding to the outbreak like managing government-issued masks.

 

Since the virus has been spreading, pharmaceutical approval procedure has slowed as well.

 

Companies have gone the distance to sign marketing deals for Korea with overseas companies, but MFDS is hesitant to conduct overseas on-site inspection.

 

Actually, the overall approval procedures are halted with many of foreign countries closing their doors on Korean travelers.

 

It is now even more frustrating as the office employees have been given an order to work from home.

 

Meeting up with vendors and teammates would unlikely to happen from now on.

 

▶Director Chung from Personnel "Hiring a new employee is like guerilla tactic” Director Chung from a new biopharmaceutical company’s Human Resources Team just spent a hectic week.

 

Concerned of unwanted break in business operation from an employee contracting COVID-19, the team has proactively coming into office in rotation to minimize the infection risk.

 

But the whole team was in a panic mode as an employee, who has recently returned from an overseas business trip, had cold-like symptoms.

 

“First time convening a video conference…” It’s time for lunch when everyone is finally online

Ordering the team members to self-quarantine has almost pulled the plug on the company’s operation.

 

As the team never had sufficient number of employees, the team was complaining about the workload surged from covering for the self-quarantined employee.

 

Although the team tried online video conference call but it was a sluggish process with not everyone familiar with the system.

 

The situation worsened around Feb.

 

26, when the number of confirmed cases in Korea exceeded one thousand.

 

A day before the interview session with prospective employees, the company has decided to push down the date by a week during an emergency meeting.

 

Chung had to individually contact the interviewee and explained the situation apologetically.

 

The situation has not gotten any better, yet.

 

Big companies could simply postpone the recruitment, but Chung’s company is relentlessly requesting for additional employee.

 

The director could not help it but to schedule an online video interview.

 

And as the interview date approached, Chung is getting restless for any technical difficulties during the interview.

 

▶PM Lee at a global pharmaceutical company “I miss the days I went to the office” Project Manager Lee working with Marketing Division at a multinational pharmaceutical company is getting depressed growingly after working from home for about a month.

 

Productivity seems to falter as most of the meetings are conducted through social media.

 

And marketing activity is out of the question as various academic conferences and seminars are canceled.

 

A regular marketing meeting convened with Korean company for the co-marketed product has been postponed indefinitely.

 

While the first quarter of the year is already ending, the marketing team did not even get to initiate the ambitious promotional strategy targeting medical doctors and pharmacists.

 

“I miss my mundane life at work”

It feels as if the company is watching Lee, when working from home on a laptop with security program installed.

 

And it is upsetting when the boss accuses him of not working, while he actually worked even more than usual.

 

PM Lee is even hesitant to go out to a nearby café for a cup of coffee.

 

Working at the office with temperature check after a crowded metro commute might feel better at this point.

 

Is it because of the stagnating performance?

 

The executives seem to nag more than usual.

 

In a group chat, criticisms and orders are given ceaselessly.

 

“Nagging might even sound better in person.

 

I’ve never thought that I would miss the mundane life so much.

 

Hopefully, the outbreak would be contained soon so I can go out and enjoy a nice refreshing glass of beer with my colleagues.”