Pharmaceutical Executive-01-01-2002

The main challenge for pharma companies this year will be to address public concerns about drug prices and access. Although recent bioterrorism fears raised demands for life-saving medicines, the public focus has shifted to the rise in pharmaceutical expenditures and its effect on healthcare costs and on efforts by insurers and government health agencies to limit pharmaceutical coverage.

Small items sometimes bring big news. Merely the briefest of summaries, this nugget nevertheless caught my attention-describing a survey of young people's career aspirations. It reported a sudden drop off in US college graduates contemplating jobs in the pharmaceutical industry, as measured against the previous five years. Why? Bad press.

One reason new medicines are more expensive is that the cost of discovering and producing new therapies is soaring.

"You never listen to me."

For once, health activists and the pharma industry both welcomed a World Trade Organization declaration on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPS) and public health, but there is little doubt that it opens the way to further compulsory licensing and parallel imports.

MICHIGAN-In an aggressive move to squeeze price discounts from the industry, Michigan recently released a list of pharmaceuticals, mostly generic and lower-priced,

John K. loves his new job on the trading floor of the New York Stock Exchange, and the last thing he wants to worry about is testing his blood sugar in the middle of a busy day. But, as a diabetic with high blood pressure, he knows he will feel lightheaded at about 11:45 every work day-just when the trading heats up. His doctor, who wants him to check his blood sugar levels regularly, suggested a monitoring system that allows him to test and record glucose levels without missing a beat.

Medical experts around the world warn that inappropriate use of Cipro (ciproflaxin) is only one aspect of the growing problem of bacterial resistance to treatment.

The wrangling over whether pharma companies invest more in R&D than in marketing is heating up again.

Once thought to be a disease of the past, tuberculosis is now a front burner health problem.

If you support the pharmaceutical industry, you will applaud Alan Holmer and the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America he presides over. You might disagree with some of the details. But mud you will not sling, nor buy every critic's case against this protector of the industry.