Pharmaceutical industry officials have become increasingly worried about a confirmed Covid-19 case in a drug sales representative at a local company.
According to sources on Wednesday, one employee of Handok was diagnosed with Covid-19 infection, and two more Handok workers got the viral infection.
The first Covid-19 case at Handok was a sales representative in Handok’s branch in Busan, and the other two employees had the transmission from the first confirmed worker.
The risk of cluster infection at Handok grew because the sales rep from Busan visited the headquarters of Handok in Gangnam-gu, Seoul. The confirmed drug rep had a meal with other employees after the visit to the head office. The employee might have had close contact with many other workers.
The drug rep at Handok also visited doctors in Busan for the promotion of medicines.
Handok said it took necessary measures, such as notifying the doctors of the confirmed case.
After the drug rep’s confirmed Covid-19 infection, Handok shut down its headquarters and its sales outlet in Busan. The company also ordered all workers at the headquarters and Busan branch to work from home until Tuesday next week.
To prevent any possible spread of the virus, Handok will conduct Covid-19 testing on all employees at the Seoul headquarters.
The latest case is not the first of Covid-19 infection among drug reps.
In June, a drug sales rep at Daewoong Pharmaceutical’s Bucheon branch in Gyeonggi Province was confirmed with Covid-19. At the time, Daewoong had an internal investigation to identify the medical institutions and pharmacies that the employee visited.
In August, Boehringer Ingelheim’s sales rep, who promoted drugs for general hospitals, became a confirmed case.
Some industry watchers said the latest Covid-19 case at Handok could discourage sales reps’ visits to hospitals and hurt drug promotion activities.
“After Covid-19, pharmaceutical firms and drug sales reps made flexible decisions depending on on-site situations. Particular regions and branches could refrain from in-person activities,” an official at a local drug company said.