InVentiv Japan brings Selling Solutions to Tokyo

September 14, 2009 – 8:55 am by Gina Monari

InVentiv Health Inc. has established inVentiv Japan, a Tokyo-based operation to provide commercialization services to healthcare clients. InVentiv Japan will provide outsourced sales solutions through the company’s Selling Solutions division.

“Japan is among the largest pharmaceutical markets in the world and our clients are launching many products into the Japanese market,” says Blane Walter, CEO, Ventiv Health. “Establishing inVentiv Japan will enable us to fulfill our clients’ needs, while also supporting inVentiv’s growth as a global healthcare leader.”

InVentiv’s sales operation in Japan is led by Dan Feldman. Mr. Feldman has more than 20 years of senior management experience in marketing and sales of ethical and over-the-counter pharmaceutical products, and in the delivery of outsourced services in Japan, Asia, and Australia. Before joining inVentiv, he served as VP, sales, Merck-Banyu in Japan, and held several senior-level positions with pharmaceutical service providers in Japan and Korea.

In addition to its Selling Solutions offering, inVentiv Health also has communications capabilities in Japan through an affiliate relationship with Ad-comm Group, a privately held network of specialized communications companies in Japan.

“We believe there is significant opportunity for outsourced sales growth in Japan,” says Terry Herring, president and chief operating officer, inVentiv Health. “Not only have many top-selling U.S. pharmaceutical products not yet launched in Japan, but a growing number of pharmaceutical companies in Japan are looking to increase the flexibility of their workforce. We have been extremely pleased by the initial response to our offering over the past quarter, and we are excited by the opportunity to build additional client relationships in this expanding market.”

Q&A with inVentiv Health’s Terry Herring

Med Ad News spoke with Terry Herring, president and chief operating officer, inVentiv Health Inc., about InVentiv Japan. Mr. Herring highlights InVentiv Health’s selling strategies and opportunities for outsourced sales in the region.

Med Ad News: What prompted the launch of InVentiv Japan?

Terry Herring: As a general rule, InVentiv Health is constantly looking for ways in which we can expand our business and we have a continuous strategic planning process and in that process we historically had very positive results in our communications group having a global network. Through feedback from the global network it became apparent that Japan, from a commercialization and a selling solutions standpoint, was a ripe market. So when we started to target to target opportunities last fall and determine where we would invest that was one of the critical areas from a global perspective that we thought would be valuable for the commercial group. We have investments in concepts globally for all four of our divisions and constantly executing on them.

Med Ad News: When did InVentiv Japan launch?

Terry Herring: We made the decision to engage in the fall strategically. We implemented late first quarter and second quarter and started deploying teams late second quarter.

Med Ad News: Can you explain some of the trends you are seeing in Japan?

Terry Herring: It is a great market in relation to the number of representatives, and it’s not a market that is shrinking in the number of representatives there, about 50,000 total reps. The market is ripe for a couple of reasons. Flexible outsourcing of representatives culturally now is more accepted. Quality is critical to those clients, quality is incredibly critical in that culture. We have a reputation of being able to deliver that and so far clients have responded to that there. Thirdly, there are a lot of opportunities in relationship to products that are going to be launched in that arena over the next several years that have already been blockbusters in the U.S. So, the need and support is there.

Finally, we think it is a unique opportunity to enhance our commercialization because a combination of communications and a commercialization group in Japan, from a competitive advantage this is something that they’re open to now. Having more of a total outsourced approach from communication and commercial, we are now establishing ourselves to meet those changing needs there.

Med Ad News: How many individuals are located within the InVentiv Japan office on the ground in Tokyo?

Terry Herring: It is minimal at this point; because we have the shared relationship with the agency there, we’re able to be on the ground but we don’t have to have a huge presence. We do have great support back here and while we review everything in Japan from an operational standpoint, we’re using a lot of the synergies from the global IT support, global HR initiatives, so just minimum management is needed there. We have a head of that business unit.

Med Ad News: What agency is on the ground in Japan?

Terry Herring: We have a global network, and in Japan we have a partnership with AdMed.

Med Ad News: What’s the total number of clients being served there?

Terry Herring: Right now we have five teams, four of which are with top 20 pharma companies and the people that support those teams directly are in Japan, but it is a minimal overhead infrastructure we have in Japan. You need to have to have a presence that is real and significant there. It is important to have a physical presence in Japan. What we’re good at is making sure it’s the most efficient and operationally appropriate organization there.

Med Ad News: How much do you foresee the business growing there?

Terry Herring: We have already seen very rapid uptake of our offering. We believe the environment is ripe and we believe our combined commercial and communication services will make InVentiv Japan a very viable business unit. We’re please with how well we’ve gotten off the ground. In less than a year having five teams on the ground, already having a communications base there, which we think helps us from a competitive advantage. We think there is great opportunity there.

Med Ad News: Is this a model that InVentiv Health is planning to follow in other geographies as well?

Terry Herring: All four of the groups have a set of global needs. In some cases, those global needs and opportunities align and when they do like in Japan then we will identify that as a higher priority opportunity. We have identified other areas where we think that that combined offering of one or more of our divisions is something we’re going to pursue. It’s opportunistic. We look at the opportunity, the overlap, and where we can combine and have a reasonable presence and a good outlook for success we’re going to go there.

Med Ad News: What is unique about the market in Japan, with regard to selling?

Terry Herring: Another intriguing aspect is that the representative’s role there is different than the U.S. because physicians both diagnose and prescribe. For us it’s an exciting aspect because the communications strategies and the role of the rep is different and we think it’s a value part of healthcare there. We’re excited about the kind of offering we’re going to have. In the general sense, we believe that the kind of quality and services that we offer are exactly what is needed in that environment which is very open to the kind of services we offer.