Overseas outsourcing began as a means of providing cheap labor for manufacturers. It is now a popular business practice for a number of industries. IT departments, credit card companies, collection agencies and call centers now outsource a significant number of American jobs to India. Indian workers require lower salaries, and the idea of employers providing health insurance is not widely accepted in India. These enormous increases in profit margin have inspired pharmaceutical companies to jump on the outsourcing bandwagon. As American pharmaceutical companies lay off U.S. workers, research and development jobs and marketing and sales jobs are being sent to India.
Bristol-Myers Squibb
In November 2008, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced a $2.5-billion budget cut, which would involve layoffs and restructuring. Then, on Nov. 16, 2008, a newspaper employment ad sought five new research and development department heads in Bangalore, India. Bristol-Myers Squibb has a relationship with Biocon Limited, a Bangalore company involved in drug metabolism research, medicinal chemistry and pharmaceutical development.
Eli Lilly
An article in the Nov. 20, 2006 edition of Information Week reported that Eli Lilly outsources some of their clinical data management to Tata Consultancy Services, a facility near New Delhi, India. Eli Lilly's outsourcing to India began in 1993 as a joint venture with Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. The venture began as a means of manufacturing and marketing some of the Eli Lilly drugs. Eli Lilly acquired Ranbaxy in 2001.
Lilly also performs clinical trials in India. An article published in the September 2008 edition of Time.com states that the company had performed 15 clinical drug trials in the past five years. The process is not without its controversy. Participants in the trials are often illiterate. As such, they might not understand the legal terms in the consent documents.
Merck
The pharmaceutical giant known as Merck came under fire in July 2008 when Sen. Sherrod Brown of Ohio sent a letter to the company's president requesting detailed information about their outsourcing to India practices. Senator Brown's letter was prompted by an announcement made on Jan. 9, 2008 by Richard Spoor, Merck's senior vice president of global procurement. Spoor stated that by 2010, Merck plans to outsource about 35 percent of the company's pharmaceutical ingredients and packaging. The senator also sent a letter to the FDA, which expressed his concern about how countries with weaker safety standards might produce contaminated drug ingredients.
Pfizer
It sounds like an episode of "The Office," but this is reality. An article published in the January 2008 edition of "Fast Company" describes the corporate culture of Pfizer Pharmaceuticals. If Pfizer's Harvard-educated team members would rather not waste time on support work, they can press a button that advises them to "click here" and have someone else do this "annoying project" for you. The "magic button" is part of Pfizer's Office of the Future project, otherwise known as OOF. Clicking the button is like rubbing a magic lamp. The "genies" are two outsourcing companies in India, who perform tasks such as document creation, spreadsheet analysis and manipulation and research. The Indian workers earn $15 to $35 per hour.
Member Comments