Glaxo facing `war for talent’ against Pfizer, Sanofi in emerging markets

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) is grappling with a “war for talent” in China and India as the U.K. drugmaker struggles to retain sales representatives needed to expand in the world’s fastest-growing markets.   About 20 percent of Glaxo’s sales force in both countries quits each year in favor of better offers from rivals, said Abbas Hussain, 46, the London-based company’s president of emerging markets. That rate is about the same as the industry average in China and India, Hussain said in a March 28 interview at his office in Singapore. “There’s a huge war for talent,” Hussain said. “It’s hard to do anything about. If you have a good person, they could find someone else willing to pay twice as much.” Emerging markets and Asia Pacific accounted for about 17 percent of Glaxo’s sales last year, compared with 18 percent for rivals New York-based Pfizer Inc. (PFE) and 30 percent for Paris-based Sanofi-Aventis SA (SAN),...