Pharmaceutical Executive-03-01-2006

Drugs are not directly addressed in Europe's new legislation for chemicals. But they'll be affected, because chemicals are used in drug manufacturing.

The disease profiles pharma companies pursue should shape the business models that enable them to grow.

Understanding how drugs are bought and paid for has always been a bit complicated. People used to say that pharma had two customers-physicians and patients. Only one of them used the drug, and neither of them knew the price. My, how times have changed. Now the industry has so many customers, it needs to stop and get to know them all over again. And that's at a time when drugs worth tens of billions of dollars are going off patent. To map pharma's shifting landscape, Pharm Exec convened a group of top market researchers to discuss the issues shaping an evolving industry. Topics ranged far and wide, from the advent of Medicare Part D, to the new focus on adherence, the role of international markets, even the brave new world of marketing to seniors' children.

All of the companies with inhaled-insulin drugs must perform two-year safety studies. Not because their drugs show troubling data, but because Exubera has caused slight, temporary decreases in lung function.

Given the high volume of rep interactions with healthcare professionals, companies must work toward achieving a fully integrated system that collects data from across the entire enterprise.

Genzyme has an impressive international record in regions with intact healthcare systems. but so far, algeria is one of very few countries where genzyme's drugs have gone from free to paid for. the company is basing a huge investment on faith.

Sponsored and produced by Focus Reports.

Before a pharmaceutical company dispatches a sales rep to a medical practice, the marketing department learns some basic facts about the physician: how many new prescriptions she's written, how many refills, and how much upside prescribing growth she might generate. What the rep usually doesn't know: who else-nurse practitioners and physician assistants-prescribes medications in the office, at a nearby clinic, or sometimes in a separate practice just down the hall.

The newspapers seem shocked to learn that scientific journals occasionally publish things that aren't true. Where have they been?

Drug manufacturers should have policies against sexual harassment of sales reps. Such a policy may also help counter charges that a company is implicitly encouraging its reps to use their sexuality as a sales tool.

Companies don't have the budget, but are being forced to do more active surveillance.

Pharmaceutical companies are worried that FDA's new labeling format will expose them to liability suits from individuals who suffer adverse events that are not highlighted, but "hidden" in the full prescribing information.

Lovenox still needs a defense strategy to hold share, but it requires less investment as a specialty product. Instead, Lovenox should throw cash over to Acomplia, the putative future star of the Sanofi-Aventis portfolio.