Interview with Luis Truchado.
Originally published in Correo Farmacéutico.
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Luis Truchado (Madrid, 1959) studied Pharmacy at the Complutense University of Madrid and shared a bench and notes with Carmen Peña, president of the General Council of COF. He says that the classrooms in which he attended were so crowded that some students had to sit on the stairs.
Fellow students with a similar career path to yours are few, very few. are few, very few. In 1992, Truchado founded EuroGalenus Executive Search, one of the companies that one of the companies working in the field of executive search, also known as headhunters. also known as headhunters. ‘I am the only pharmacist in human resources,’ he says.
Question.- Pharmacy, industry and administration: are these the only
are they the only opportunities for a pharmacist?
Answer: For me, it is a very versatile career. Pharmacists are good for
for everything and are very good, for example, as health inspectors, in the fields of water analysis and nutrition.
water analysis and nutrition…
Q.- In the industry, should there be more doctors or more pharmacists?
A.- They are different. The pharmacist has something very good for the industry that he/she is
is taught in his career: to write down data and to offer recommendations and alternatives.
alternatives. Doctors, however, give orders
Q.- Is that one of the pieces of advice you give to your clients?
A.- Yes, but I also tell them that, for many positions, it is not necessary for the candidate to know a lot of
candidate does not need to know a lot about anything technical. What is needed is
have a global vision of the company and its environment. You have to know where
the right direction. To put it another way, you can run a pharmaceutical company without knowing about medicines.
pharmaceutical company without knowing about medicines. You have to know how to motivate and inspire the whole team, and to
team, and convince them that you know where you are going and that where you are taking them is a good place for them.
is a good place for them.
Q.- What about endogamy, the habit of hiring only executives from other laboratories, which is said to reign among
from other laboratories, which is said to reign among the top management?
A.- It is absolutely true. And it is probably not desirable. Of course, that doesn’t
does not mean that it is undesirable either. There is a big but in this whole issue of inbreeding.
of inbreeding.
Q.- What is it?
A.- The regulatory tasks in this sector and the limitations on what can be done are enormous. If you have to explain all the things you can’t do to a person coming from another sector, you lose a lot of time.
Q.- But there will be exceptions…
A.- Of course there will be. For example, there are people from the pharmaceutical industry who have gone to other sectors which are also highly regulated, such as the
telecommunications.
Q.- And vice versa, are there cases that justify the loss of time in
of time in training someone new to the sector?
A.- There are areas that are less regulated, such as business development.
But the classic example is OTCs, which have a very clear consumer side, although, of course, it is still
consumer side, although, of course, it is still not possible to say anything about the product.
product. I am an advocate of attracting people from outside the industry who can bring new things to the table.
who can bring new things to the table. It is, as they say, bringing in fresh air.
Q.- So you are against this endogamic habit of the sector?
sector?
A.- I think it would be desirable not to have so much inbreeding, but you have to live with it.
with it.
Q.- Regarding the things that the industry says about the product, it seems to be making progress in being able to inform patients about medicines,
it seems to be making progress in being able to inform patients about prescription drugs…
prescription drugs…
A.- We are facing a completely different world than 20 years ago.
Before, people went to the doctor and the doctor was the ultimate authority. If he told the
patient to take certain pills, he would say: ‘yes, sir doctor’. And they
And off he went. Now we are all much more informed. And not only the younger generation
generations, because any grandchild can search the internet for information about the drugs their grandparents are taking.
drugs that their grandparents are taking. The patient is more informed and can
assimilate more information, it is pure maturity.
Q.- So, should patients receive more information about the drugs?
drugs?
A.- Yes, but as a pharmacist, I think there should be a health professional in the middle.
in the middle. The patient may know a lot about a drug, but they should always have a doctor or a pharmacist to talk to.
a doctor or a pharmacist to talk to about it. The user has an
ultimate responsibility in the use of medicines.
Q.- Does a more informed patient use medicines better?
A.- There is always someone who takes something indiscriminately just because a neighbour took it.
a neighbour. The fact that the advice of people close to you is more highly valued than that of a health professional is very Spanish.
a health professional is something very Spanish. In any case, I think it is a
good trend for the patient to be informed and to be able to ask for things. It is absurd to
to bother the health system unnecessarily because of a small fever.
Q.- All this is closely related to the internet.
A.- On the net, patients not only have access to official information,
they also have access to unofficial information…
Q.- Farmaindustria, the employers’ association of innovative laboratories,
that they are qualified to report on drugs, as they are the ones who research, develop and manufacture them.
researching, developing and manufacturing them.
A.- This is a great paradox in communication 2.0. Let’s imagine the case of a
a drug indicated for multiple sclerosis. The laboratory that markets it
marketing it can’t put anything about it. But anyone can tell how it has
for example, to his cousin. Any doctor or pharmacist
would consider that irrelevant. If it is not statistically important, you don’t pay attention to it.
paid no attention to it. But that’s what people find when they surf the internet.
Q.- Changing the subject, what is the mistake most frequently made by the candidates you
candidates you work with at EuroGalenus?
A.- There is a quite generalised mistake: in this sector there have been a series of years of
years of growth, expansion and an abundance of good professional opportunities.
professional opportunities. This has made a lot of professionals unaccustomed to it.
Q.- In what sense?
A.- The belief that one will always earn more money had become an acquired belief, just as the belief that
acquired belief, like the belief that flats never go down. And there has come a time when
that this is no longer the case.
Q.- But will it happen more in some companies than in others?
A.- That’s the million-dollar question, to know which companies will do well and which will do badly. In my opinion, you have to look at the pipeline. If a lab has innovative products, they will do well, they will hire and raise their people’s salaries. If they don’t have a pipeline and their patents expire, the opposite will happen.
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