"Starting a company feels a lot like raising a child"

We talked to Izolda Areskiene, Baltic States Regional Manager, Medis Pharma

In this interview, Areskiene reveals the main challenges she’s been facing, she talks about obstacles that were hardest to overcome, and explores the great successes that she and her team have been able to achieve in the short one year of business.  

After being a medical practitioner in pediatric pulmonology, I started working in the pharmaceutical business in the beginning of 2000, first as a sales representative, and then have worked my way up to the current position. My personal experience allowed me to get to know what is important to my customers. At that time I joined the pharma world, international pharmaceutical companies had only just begun appearing in the Baltic States. Everything was new and unknown,  nobody really knew how everything was going to work. But we all were very eager to bring the best and the most innovative medicine to all our patients.

After 1990ies, when the three Baltic States regained their independence, everything was changing very fast, including the pharmaceutical world as well. The sudden changes created a gap of  specialists in the pharmaceutical business. Therefore, it was very natural that the doctors or people practicing medicine joined this industry and created this new field. For us doctors who were working in this new pharma field, it was very natural to feel that the patient must be first. We were very interested to provide all the available therapies to our patients. We also were eager to learn and share our knowledge with the local physicians. 

I started at Abbott Laboratories, American company, which was very keen on ethical business sense. There I learned how important is that aspect of the business, and that principle became one of my core values while in this industry. To me, the respect to customers, local regulations, legal requirements and business transparency is really very important. 

Our priority is always the responsibility for the customer. Everyone in the group represents not just themselves but the company. They are the face not only of Medis Pharma but of the whole pharmaceutical industry. Therefore they bear a big responsibility not only for what they offer but how that is represented and delivered to the customer.

I also highly value the real team spirit, working together, and open and mutual understanding.

This year, I am on the mission to make Medis Pharma more prominent, which means a bigger and more diversified portfolio based on the needs and requirements from the local practitioners. I would like our company to be perceived as a reliable partner with high ethical standards. 

Medis Pharma Lithuania wholesale Oribalt Vilnius - “It is a great honour for us to be able to cooperate with the Slovenian company Medis Pharma in the Baltic States – Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia – and to be responsible for supplying medical preparations, commercialised by Medis Pharma, in the region. Our cooperation has been going on for almost a year now and we are proud and happy to be able to support Medis Pharma in their great mission to sell innovative pharmaceutical products – medicines and medical equipment designed for patients with special needs to ease their lives.”

Elene Lasiene (nurse, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos) – “Medis Pharma is the trustful company! Nice and easy cooperation!”

Lina Gumbine (cardiologist, Vilnius University Hospital Santaros Klinikos) – “A reliable and customer-oriented company.”

Virginija Kalinauskaite-Zukauske (pulmonologist, Lithuanian University of Health Sciences, Kaunas Clinics) – “Patient-oriented approach and being when needed. They have a communication and business strategy that creates a sense of security.”

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