Abbott in trouble over death of a sales representative

Trouble is brewing at Abbott, India's second-largest drug maker by market share, following an alleged suicide last week by a medical representative in Indore purportedly under pressure to achieve periodic sales targets. Abbott has strongly refuted any role in the employee's death, noting that the deceased was rated among the top performers and had recently qualified for a training certification meant for high performers.

Ashish Awasthi, who was 35, was found dead on a railway track last week. A note recovered from him blamed the company for his death. The incident sparked unrest among Abbott's local field representatives, who have staged a series of demonstrations, demanding adequate compensation for the dead employee's family and better service conditions for field representatives. Members of the union of medical representatives have written to the company's top executives in India and its headquarters in Chicago, highlighting, what they termed, continuous pressure, mental harassment on sales promotion employees and punitive action against field-level staff.

Manish Thacker, secretary of the Indore unit of Madhya Pradesh-Chhattisgarh Medical & Sales Representatives Union, told ET that Abbott is indulging in unethical trade and marketing practices and forcing its sales promotion employees to involve in unethical businesses. In a memorandum to the company, the union, which is affiliated to the Federation of Medical and Sales Representatives' Associations of India, demanded action against the managers responsible for Awasthi's death, adequate compensation to the bereaved family and suitable steps to prevent such incidences in the future. The union pleaded for the formation of a grievance redressal forum.

Awasthi was employed in the neuro life division of Abbott and was a consistent performer, a source said.

In a mailed response to ET, Abbott defended its marketing practices in India, saying the policies, practices and employee training is aligned with applicable laws, regulations and industry codes. "These are cascaded to all our employees when they join the organisation and refreshed through regular training," a spokesperson noted in the mailed statement.

Competition in India's $15-billion pharmaceutical market is fierce and with thousands of players jostling for a share of the market, ethics of marketing practices followed by companies and doctors have come under the scanner frequently. Data from market research agency AIOCD PharmaTrac shows Abbott's pharmaceutical sales at Rs 6,236 crore over the past 12 months, which constituted a 6.2 per cent market share based on moving annual turnover until June.

Source: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/industry/healthcare/biotech/pharmaceuticals/abbott-in-trouble-over-death-of-a-sales-representative/articleshow/53371880.cms