Panicking with first confirmed COVID-19 in industry

Employee at Dong-A ST R&D Center tested positive with infection

Companies order work from home and refrain from external business including sales

Halted sales may scar overall prescription volume, concerned of Chinese-made ingredient

Korean pharmaceutical industry now has a first confirmed case of the 2019 novel coronavirus, COVID-19.

 

Working at a research laboratory without much of external interaction, the infected employee is not expected to create a severe impact.

 

But pharmaceutical companies are reinforcing precautionary measures against disease transmission.

 

More pharmaceutical companies are ordering their employees to work from home and desperately trying to minimize break at work.

 

◆ Dong-A ST R&D Center employee tested positive, first confirmed case in the industry

Dong-A ST R&D Center

Pharmaceutical industry source reported on Feb.

 

27, a female employee working at Dong-A ST’s R&D Center located in city of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province, has been tested positive for COVID-19.

 

Within pharmaceutical industry, she is the first confirmed case of COVID-19.

 

The employee has visited Andong, North Gyeongsang Province, from Feb.

 

22 to 23.

 

On Feb.

 

25, the employee received a message that Andong Health Center has confirmed a positive case, where the employee has been.

 

After receiving the relayed message from her, Dong-A ST ordered the employee to self-quarantined herself and had her tested at Giheung-gu Health Center of Yongin, Gyeonggi Province.

 

Apparently, she is not a researcher, but a part-time staff assisting laboratory experiment.

 

Dong-A ST immediately closed down and disinfected the R&D center and its nearby Human Resource Center.

 

All employees at the R&D center were ordered to self-quarantine for two weeks.

 

From 4 p.m.

 

on the same day, Dong-A ST has ordered their headquarter employees to leave offices and work from until Feb.

 

28.

 

Although the infected employee has not visited the headquarter office, the company has decided to disinfect the entire headquarter building to prevent any further spread of the infection.

 

Sales force of the company has been working from home starting from Feb.

 

25.

 

Because of the preventive measure, the entire Dong-A ST R&D Center is halted.

 

As the research work can only be done at laboratories, working from home is technically impossible and ongoing research programs would be suspended for a while.

 

Because of one employee at Dong-A ST R&D Center, the whole pharmaceutical company has been stirred.

 

The laboratory assistant apparently had not directly interacted with many other employees at the building with the nature of her work.

 

But Dong-A ST cannot risk affecting other pharmaceutical companies in case other employees at the research center has contracted COVID-19.

 

◆ Pharmaceutical companies on high alert, infected salesperson would impact the industry Pharmaceutical companies are significantly reinforcing precautionary measures with the first case confirmed within the industry.

 

At the moment, the industry is relieved it was not a salesperson who contracted COVID-19.

 

If it were the case, the impact would have been devastating for the industry.

 

With their nature of visiting tens of healthcare centers a day, sales forces could be a dangers carrier of COVID-19.

 

While the government focuses on blocking secondary and tertiary infection by disclosing and immediately closing down locations a confirmed patient has visited.

 

Some criticizes pharmaceutical companies letting their salespeople go around healthcare institutes is being ignorant about the severity of the risk.

 

For instance, if a salesperson visiting 20 healthcare institutes a day were to have been tested positive, medical professionals, all patients and their families could have been exposed to the risk.

 

The government announces all routes of infected patient, and healthcare institutes and pharmacies visited by an infected salesperson would unavoidably make a loss.

 

A hospital restricted entry of pharmaceutical salesperson

Assuming a salesperson has contracted COVID-19, the industry would inevitably get scrutinized for spreading the virus.

 

The infected salesperson would be reprehended for spreading the virus around and damaging healthcare institutes.

 

On Feb.

 

20, Korean Medical Practitioners Association has issued an official statement to Korea Pharmaceutical and Bio-pharma Manufacturers Association (KPBMA) and other organization to refrain salespeople from visiting hospitals and clinics.

 

With the situation, pharmaceutical companies’ sales divisions are basically open with no business.

 

Started with multinational pharmaceutical companies from last month, working from home has been recommended among Korean companies as well.

 

Pfizer Pharmaceutical Korea, Novartis Korea, MSD Korea, AstraZeneca Korea, Bristol-Myers Squibb Korea, Sanofi-Aventis Korea, AbbVie Korea, Amgen Korea, Gilead Sciences Korea, Mundipharma Korea, Baxter Korea, Janssen Korea, and Bridge Biotherapeutics have decided to have all employees work from home.

 

As for Korean companies, the managements of Hanmi Pharmaceutical, LG Chem, GC Pharma, CJ HealthCare, Dong-A ST, and Dong Wha Pharm have banned their employees to visit healthcare institutes.

 

As COVID-19 has been spreading rapidly since Feb.

 

19 centering Daegu, North Gyeongsang Province, more companies are considering on having office staffs, not just salespeople, to work from home,.

 

A source from a pharmaceutical company commented, “Because COVID-19 continues to spread exponentially, most of employees have been ordered to cancel external meetings and to work from home for all employee is being considered.” Over the span of 27 days, 505 have been confirmed with COVID-19 infection overnight.

 

The number of total confirmed cases in Korea has soared to 1,766.

 

13 deaths from the infection have been reported in Korea so far.

 

Most of companies have started to work in flexible or reduced hours.

 

The maximum working hours in Dong-a ST has been reduced to from 10 a.m.

 

to 5 p.m.

 

Chong Kun Dang also segmented commuting time frame for each division to commute in.

 

Other companies have suspended use of company cafeteria or divided employees to have their meals in different time.

 

◆ Industry fatigued with long-term outbreak, business and performance to take unwanted break

Severance Hospital and other general hospitals have completely banned ward visitation to prevent spread of COVID-19

Apparently, the pharmaceutical companies are complaining of their extremely fatigued from the prolonged outbreak.

 

A pharmaceutical company insider noted, “Working from home for a month, business to be done face-to-face has been suspended.

 

By avoiding meetings with vendors and clients as much as possible, the company’s productivity has dropped dramatically.” Beside the low productivity, the companies also have to worry about the steep fall in sales.

 

Pharmaceutical market research firm UBIST found last month’s outpatient prescription volume marked 1.25 trillion won.

 

The figure dipped by 4.4 percent compared to same period last year, and by 4.6 percent compared to the previous month.

 

It contrasts from recent January prescription volumes that have constantly increased over 5 percent every year.

 

The volume in January 2019 was raised by 8.5 percent than January 2018.

 

Januaries in 2016, 2017 and 2018 have surged by 5.4 percent, 7.6 percent and 18.2 percent, respectively, than the previous years.

 

Although the early Lunar Calendar New Years may have affected the prescription volume with less number of working days, majority of experts analyze COVID-19 outbreak is the biggest cause of fall in outpatient prescription volume.

 

The public has been on high alert since the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed on Jan.

 

20.

 

The outpatient prescription from then was stricken by increasing number of patients avoiding healthcare institutes.

 

The companies are anxious that this month’s sales would be even worse.

 

Except for patients with severe or chronic disease, other patients with mild condition would naturally hesitate to visit healthcare institute.

 

A decrease in number of patients would bring down the drug sales straight.

 

Also, hindered sales activity would cripple Korean pharmaceutical companies highly dependent on generics.

 

Within the same class of drugs, generic sales are swung by sales force.

 

Meanwhile, breakthrough drugs or new drugs without generic and alternative options would hardly get affected from impeded sales activity.

 

Salespeople staying away from healthcare institutes could also drag down the inflow of cash.

 

Usually, the salespeople visit healthcare institutes and pharmacies to settle the drug product payments.

 

But as most of healthcare institutes are obviously shunning the salespeople, collecting bills would also get difficult.

 

A pharmaceutical company insider commented, “The company is deeply stressed about counteracting against the COVID-19 outbreak that doesn’t seem to ease out any time soon.

 

This year’s overall sales would plummet if the situation lingers longer.”