Pharmaceutical Executive-05-01-2006

Pharmaceutical Executive

2005 Pharm Exec 50 [revised]

July 05, 2006

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Our 7th Annual Report on the World?s Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies [Revised]

More Than a Game of Keep Away

May 01, 2006

Features

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Industry self-policing may be the only way to stop state Legislators who want to ban sales Reps, and even whole companies, from using Prescribing information.

Teamsters v. Pfizer

May 01, 2006

Features

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The world's largest drug manufacturer must answer off-label promotion charges brought by a new adversary. Not FDA, with its warning letters and threats of marketing sanctions, and not the Office of the Inspector General (OIG) at Health and Human Services, which often sues for fraud, forces huge settlements, and requires companies to do business under restrictive corporate integrity agreements. Instead, the company faces a class-action civil suit from insurance companies and union welfare funds, groups that, until recently, Pfizer regarded primarily as customers-or at least people who picked up the tab for customers. Now, led by the Welfare Fund of a Teamsters local from New Jersey, third-party payers are suing under RICO, the Racketeering Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act. If their suit is successful, payers who have covered billions of dollars worth of Lipitor (atorvastatin) over the past five years will receive treble damages for the cost of off-label prescriptions. The suit may also attract..

Cervical Cancer: Endangered Species

May 01, 2006

Features

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It's busy at merck these days- and not just in the Vioxx legal department. Instead, the entire office buzzes with activity: Executives work late hours, finalizing the regulatory submission; conference calls echo throughout the Whitehouse Station compound, dialed in to local affiliates around the world. In other offices, scientists write up scientific papers, while communications execs buzz in on intercoms, patching the flood of media calls to top scientists.

Leadership: It is Personal

May 01, 2006

Leadership

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Are large corporations, with massive bureaucracies and thousands of employees, capable of acknowledging employees' personal passions? They don't have a choice. Large numbers of talented people are leaving organizations because the corporate structure is not accommodating personal passion. The good news is that the great companies are starting to do something about it, which denotes a big change in business ideology. Bill Toppeta, president of MetLife International, recently told the Fordham Leadership Forum, at the Fordham Graduate School of Business, "What you need to know as the leader is what motivates your people, not what motivates you."

Legal: The Kickback Effect

May 01, 2006

Legal

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Criminal penalties for violating the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act can be substantial. Businesses found guilty may be fined upwards of $2.5 million for each offense, or twice the amount gained as a result of the violation.

Washington Report: Opportunity Knocks

May 01, 2006

Washington Report

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The pharmaceutical companies in the Predictive Safety Consortium have agreed to cross-test each other's laboratory methods to determine which are most effective in detecting kidney, muscle, and liver toxicity.

From the Editor: Mixed Signals

May 01, 2006

From the Editor

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Where is pharma going? Toward more science, and more political pressure on science. Toward greater patient responsibility-and more regulation-by-lawsuit. And forward. Let's not forget about forward.

Thought Leader: Scientific Expression

May 01, 2006

Thought Leader

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The investigators, other than the people at Merck, didn't know about [additional cardiovascular adverse events] for six months after the study was published. But one could argue we didn't have to know because it's not part of the predefined study.

Opinion: Brussels Sprouts

May 01, 2006

Opinion

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I've just returned from Europe, where I spoke with various think tanks, thought leaders, and pharmaceutical companies on the issue they call "information-to-patients" (ItP). That's what we on the other side of the pond refer to as direct-to-consumer communications. In Europe, they choose to abstain from using the "A" word-advertising. But rhetoric counts. "Information to patients" seems quite paternalistic when compared with the new-worldly "direct-to-consumer" moniker.

Pharm Exec 50: The World's Top 50 Pharmaceutical Companies

May 01, 2006

Special Reports

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Changing Landscapes: A Special Report on the World?s Top 50 Pharma Companies

Global Report: A Hope and a Payer

May 01, 2006

Global Report

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One health insurance company in The Netherlands is offering doctors a financial incentive to prescribe generic statins and proton pump inhibitors. Doctors and patients complained, but a court upheld the practice.

Pharm Exec Q&A: Japanese Wedding

May 01, 2006

Executive Profile

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Just how traditional marriages join a couple together from a common culture, Daiichi and Sankyo are merging based on a sense of having come from the same place, and facing the same future. But the art of integration lies in creating new ways of working that make the marriage bigger than the sum of its parts. Officiating the marriage is John Alexander, MD, head of pharma development for Daiichi Sankyo.