PDI inks Novartis sales force contract

Under the deal, the financial terms of which were not disclosed, the contract sales organisation (CSO) will supply a 100-strong sales force to promote an unidentified Novartis product in the US over the next four years.

Michael Marquard, PDI's CEO, said: " This is the type of opportunity we envisioned when we established our new product commercialization business unit ".

"

We entered into this agreement with Novartis following considerable due diligence, including extensive market research and demand forecasting ".

Indeed, the new business is most welcomed by the firm, who has reported losses for a series of quarters now as it has struggled to overcome a number of key contract losses over the past couple of years.

In March 2007 one of PDI's major clients, whose name was not revealed, discontinued its $35m contract sales deal with the company; last October GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) told PDI that it would not be renewing its sales contract with the firm, signalling a devastating $65m-$70m loss in annual revenue; and prior to this AstraZeneca had already pulled the plug on a long-running service contract.

At the time AstraZeneca was PDI's biggest client, and along with GSK and Sanofi-Aventis, accounted for 50-60 per cent of the company's revenue.

Recognising the need for serious damage control, PDI last year appointed a new CEO and CFO and said it was strengthening its business development and marketing efforts, part of which involved a five year plan for growth, with four key areas of focus, including decision support services (market research and market analysis); scientific support services (medical communications; marketing support services (teleconferencing and web-based conferencing); and sales support services (regional/seasonal or new approaches to sales).

Since then, the company has started making ground, winning a one year sales services contract worth $23m with a top-five pharmaceutical company; and a one year $13m contract with a top-ten pharma firm for its Select Access team, one of its diversified sales and marketing service divisions.

Select Access is a unique selling model in which multiple, non-competitive clients can use a sales force with established physician relationships in high potential zip codes nationwide, said PDI.

In February PDI also announced that a sales services agreement with a top-10 pharmaceutical company, to promote its anti-viral medication on a seasonal basis, was extended by a further year through to April 2009.

This means that the unidentified firm will continue to use PDI's Select Access team for an additional two seasons to reach doctors, exclusively in the paediatric field.

The deal extension is expected to generate around $10.5m for the CSO.