Contract sales organizations (CSOs) are trending in the pharmaceutical industry. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety announced that 45% of the 195 companies it had surveyed use CSO companies. When limiting the subjects to small-to-mid-size companies, the industry expects the rate to far exceed 70%. The Top 10 pharmaceutical companies in Korea are also preparing to use SCO sales for their products.

Kyung Dong Pharma also chose to outsource sales to CSOs at the beginning of the year. The company laid off 180 of the 250 sales representatives. As a result, the number of employees (excluding fixed-term workers) decreased from 569 at the end of last year to 397 by the end of Q1 this year.

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