Pharmaceutical Executive, Jul 30, 2007

Features

Safety Net

By Louis A. Morris

A new class of scales that can help capture drug effects—not necessarily disease impacts, as quality-of-life instruments currently do—will likely be needed to identify the meaning of the drug's benefits to patients

Avandia Sales Away

By Richard Altus, ImpactRx

Avandia's market share erosion was magnified further by the almost complete absence of new prescriptions being switched to Avandia from its competitors. In the weeks before the event, Avandia accounted for more than 20 percent of all switches by primary care physicians

Tomorrow's Drugs

By The Staff of Pharmaceutical Executive

Have you heard the rumors that all the drugs have already been discovered? Well, forget it. Maybe some of the low-hanging fruit is gone—but in the last few years, science has opened up thousands of new targets, while new technologies have made it possible to treat disease in unprecedented ways.

Tibotec Gets AIDS

By Walter Armstrong

Tibotec is set to launch a second revolution in HIV treatment—Âand make a run at Glaxo, BMS, and Abbott, the longtime market kingpins

Washington Report

Exclusivity vs. Patents

By Jill Wechsler

Twelve years is probably "the best deal the industry is going to get," comments former FDA official Scott Gottlieb. "This is a genuine compromise."

From the Editor

The Price is Wrong

By Patrick Clinton

Of all pharma's marketing tactics, the hardest to swallow was "marketing the spread." This was a scheme developed in the 1990s for physician-administered drugs (PADs)—injectables, cancer drugs, etc., which are purchased from wholesalers by physicians and reimbursed by Medicare or third-party payers. Until recently, reimbursement was based on Average Wholesale Price (AWP). This sounds like it ought to mean the average of prices paid to wholesalers, but in practice, it was always closer to sticker price. Manufacturers discovered that they could give physicians a tidy bonus by creating a spread between AWP and what docs paid.

Column

Real Leaders Pay It Forward

By Sander Flaum

Bill Gates and Warren Buffet: Their legacies will last long after the ink has dried on the latest "World's Richest People" list

The Essence of a Brand

By Stewart Young, Corbett Accel Healthcare Group

Brand essence is the result of a mixture of empirical facts, brand personality, functional benefits, and feelings that leads to the differentiating brand idea

Meetings: Pump Up the Meeting

By George Koroneos, Online Content & News Editor

Today's meeting and convention halls have the potential to be as big and awe-inspiring as a rock concert venue, drawing all eyes to the presenter and creating a real sense of spectacle

Creativity Through Understanding

Mel Sokotch has seen his share of consumer advertising, having worked in the business for nearly 30 years. He's done time at Foote Cone & Belding and Grey Advertising, and he's handled campaigns for Merck, Pfizer, and Eli Lilly. Most recently, Sokotch penned Shortcuts to the Obvious, a how-to book documenting common marketing mistakes and the ways in which agencies can better position ads. The book is geared toward general consumer advertising, but it includes numerous pharma examples. Pharm Exec caught up with Sokotch to learn more about what marketers can do to build better campaigns.

Opinion

Fewer Cents, More Sense

By Peter Pitts

The US healthcare system may be broken, as such sages as Michael Moore suggest, but it's not likely to be fixed as long as our domestic debate remains stuck on the cost of prescription drugs. Meanwhile, obesity and diabetes are becoming national epidemics. Talk about sicko.

Global Report

Make Resistance Futile

By Sarah Houlton

Scare stories about antibiotic-resistant bacteria are all too common in the mass media these days. In the United Kingdom alone, the number of deaths from methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus almost doubled between 2001 and 2005 to more than 2,000. The situation with Clostridium difficile is even worse, with UK deaths tripling to almost 4,000 over the same period. The big problem is that the incidence is growing, yet few antibiotics are being developed that will be able to kill the resistant bacteria.