Mr. Sujit Mandot the winner of “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards for Excellence in Marketing: Endocrinology” sharing the secrets of building chronic business

Business Mint- INDIA’S LEADING & MOST CREDIBLE MARKET RESEARCH FIRM annually conducts “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards”. The purpose behind the award is to acknowledge the outstanding contribution of a marketeer towards the brand building or an initiative devised to improve patient outcome.

Under the banner of the awards, we got an opportunity to interact with Mr. Sujit Mandot, the winner of “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards” in the category of “Excellence in Marketing-Endocrinology”. Mr. Sujit is a distinguished marketeer, currently associated with the leading pharmaceutical organization Macleods Pharma as a Dy. Marketing Manager and bringing in rich experience of 11 years in marketing. He has been awarded for his outstanding contribution to endocrinology fraternity with a special focus on thyroid care. After congratulating him, for winning “Nationwide Pharma Marketing Excellence Awards” for “Excellence in Marketing-Endocrinology”, we had an informative dialogue with Mr. Sujit. I am sharing a glimpse from an insightful and inspiring conversation for the benefit of all readers.

Q.1: Today you have been awarded as the best marketeer in the endocrinology specialty, tell us, what inspired you to pursue a career in the profession of pharma marketing at first?
I was very clear to pursue my career in pharma marketing wherein I can utilize my knowledge of pharmacy to understand the products and use the marketing skills to market the products by understanding the USP of the products. This was the reason for my inclination toward pharma marketing.

Q.2: Can you tell us about your journey as a marketeer, your learning curve & what was that inflection point in the journey that transformed you into a successful marketeer?
Throughout my career in pharma marketing, I have been working with four to five different pharmaceutical companies. Initially, I was working with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) during which I learned the basics of ground fieldwork and the challenges associated with the same. My first endeavour was Samarth Life Sciences, which was a critical care company. I got to learn various aspects of hospital management. Then I shifted to Medley where I was handling the diabetic products in the cardio-diabetic division where I majorly learned endocrinology. For the last six years while being associated with Macleods, I have been learning more about endocrinology and thyroid profile which is the core endocrinology field. I believe that I have learned a lot by working at various companies. Each company has a different culture, working approach, and business methodology. Every segment has different dynamics that helped me to transform my career.

Q.3: Being a successful brand manager, according to you, what are the traits of trade that a brand manager should inculcate to excel?
I would specifically mention two traits, being creative and execution. By being creative, a brand manager should be able to plan various campaigns in order to create a position and develop an image of the product in the minds of the doctor. Secondly, being creative is not enough. Execution of the plans and campaigns ensures that the product reaches the targets through the marketeer. Therefore, creating campaigns and successfully executing them makes an individual a good marketeer. 

Q.4: For the year 2022, you have been awarded as the best marketeer in the endocrinology specialty, tell us something about your last year’s marketing initiatives that make you stand tall in this highly competitive industry.
I work in the market of thyroid hormones where we are at the third position in the pharmaceutical industry. The first two companies get their medicine manufactured by a third party. They are also not an Indian MNC, unlike Macleods. So various campaigns had been put in place to demonstrate the significance of the products made in India. The campaigns like “being vocal for local” and “being Atmanirbhar” helped to create a big impact on the brand towards the doctors. 

Q.5: How have your marketing initiatives improved the quality of life of the patients?
For hormonal products, quality is very important. For thyroid hormones such as insulins, oestrogens, and progesterone, providing an optimum quality of product to the patients is very important. If there is no quality, the product is not going to have good clinical efficacy. In my segment, levothyroxine is the main product and it is available in various strengths. So, this helps the doctors to provide an appropriate dose. If various strengths of a product are available, the lives of the patients become easy. If an appropriate strength is not available, the patient might have to break the tablet and use it. This might create chances of an underdose or overdose. 

Q.6: Every specialty has a typical success lever, according to you what are those levers of success in the endocrinology specialty?
Endocrinology has two types of markets, the diabetic and thyroid market. Quality is the priority for the doctors as well as the patients. The hormones have a very narrow therapeutic index. Therefore, the quality of the product is critical to achieving good clinical efficacy. 

Q.7: At last, what would you like to tell, the budding marketeers, hoping to carve out their career in pharma brand building?
This is the most dynamic career and a challenging job. Being a pharma marketeer, one is likely to have a challenging life and the market is constantly changing. An individual is required to be energetic and be updated with new molecules, new studies, new articles, and new studies that usually change the value of the product in the market. Lastly, one should also be creative enough to plan the campaigns and execute them appropriately to be a successful pharma marketeer.