Indian Pharma's Fraudulent Job Applicants

Thirty-five out of every 100 job applicants in the pharmaceutical or clinical trial space in India “are lying about their credentials”, says a report by Delhi-based employee screening firm AuthBridge.

According to a report in India’s Economic Times, AuthBridge sifted through three years of applicant data from over 500 companies and found that pharma/clinical trials is among the industries with the “highest employee discrepancies”.

The trend is said to be most common among the 30-49 age groups, when “the applicant doesn’t mind enriching his or her educational qualification,” says AuthBridge CEO, Ajay Trehan.

He goes on: “One candidate had furnished the educational qualifications of his ex-boss, another had used her deceased sister’s credentials while applying for a job.”

Pharma sector hiring grew by 24% last year compare with 2012, according to a report by headhunting firm Randstad. But most of the recent hires in senior positions are from outside the industry, noted a spokesperson for a large Indian pharma firm, because there is uncertainty about the quality of people available in the current market. In areas such as R&D, however, research and development, there are no options but to look for those within the industry. As a result, this particular executive’s firm has “tightened investigation of our potential employees.”