A crumble rather than a collapse

As mentioned in my first post-hiatus piece, I've been traveling constantly for months now. The European countries where I've spent the most time are Spain and Germany, who are surely the large-economy yin and yang of the Euro crisis. Strangely the mood was better in Spain (but that might just have been the weather) but in both cases the sense was of business-as-usual in a regrettably tough economy.

Then again, my clients are multinational pharmaceutical companies who will almost always reduce a sales target and taken a global P&L hit rather than sack an entire sales team. This same option just doesn't exist for a local business that lives or dies by whatever revenues can be extricated from the economy in question. The Spanish employees of my clients know themselves to be very, very lucky people.

But as Europe shrinks it will be harder and harder for multinationals to give economic shelter to their staff, even in Germany. The name of the game is prescription pharmaceuticals, which in Europe means that all revenues come from the taxpayer. Theoretically this means that there'll always be a customer because there'll always be a Ministry of Health looking out for the needs of its citizens.

But at the moment Europe feels as if it's being hollowed out. The outward forms of government remain but less of the stuff that actually matters. In Greece you'll most likely still get into an oncology ward but access to those smart, low-side effect, 'tumour activated' cancer drugs is now C.O.D. The German government has a new policy whereby they'll demand a refund if a new medication fails to meet the expectations set by the pharma company (this one is really smart).

My friends working for my clients are safe for the moment and perhaps forever. It's not as if Big Pharma is diverting supplies from some other richer part of the world as a favour to Europe. Back at Global HQ they're sweating over missed targets and year-on-year declines but the governing fact is still patent expiry. Short of mothballing a promising drug until this mess is all over, my clients have no choice but to launch well in order to maximise the returns regardless of any other factors.

And 'launching well' is where I come in.