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Four pharmaceutical companies, Kenilworth, NJ-based Schering-Plough Corp; The Procter and Gamble Co., Cincinnati; Eli Lilly and Co., Indianapolis; and Abbott Laboratories, Abbott Park, IL, were named to Fortune magazine's list of "50 Best Companies for Minorities." The list was published in the July 9 issue of the magazine.

It doesn't matter what you sell. Whether it's widgets or pharmaceuticals, we all face the same challenge - connecting with our customers and getting our message across.

London-GlaxoSmithKline is proposing to cut more than 2,000 jobs from its worldwide workforce of 100,000 as it seeks to generate the promised savings from its merger.

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While making small talk at a party, a new acquaintance asked a senior pharmaceutical executive what line of business he was in. "I work for a multinational pharmaceutical company," he replied.

Pharma mergers have hardly brought runaway success. Yet, judging from industry CEOs' public pronouncements, on the horizon is another merger and acquisition wave that will challenge both participants and spectators. The M&A game of the future may diverge drastically from strategies of the past, as multiple acquirers begin to target specific therapeutic franchises rather than whole companies.

Early e-health enthusiasts envisioned a rapid technology and information metamorphosis that could only be described as a quantum leap. In the aftermath of the dot-com shake out, pharma companies reported e-initiative progress that more accurately resembles a shuffle-with an occasional stumble. Cap Gemini Ernst & Young surveyed more than 100 senior managers from 42 pharma companies, including the top 10, to assess the current state of all things "e." The results are mixed.

That marketing should begin early in product development has become a truism in the pharma industry. But as a statement on its own, it sheds little light. What does it mean to begin? At what point do marketers insert themselves into the process? To what end do they enter where once only scientists trod? And, the ultimate question—which the truism fails to answer—how might their intrusion affect the lives of patients, in trial or thereafter?

HIV risk factors among injection drug users differ markedly by gender, according to a 10-year study funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse. The findings, reported in the Archives of Internal Medicine (vol. 161, no. 10), indicate that while drug-related risk behaviors and homosexual activity are the most important predictors of HIV seroconversion among males, factors consistent with high-risk heterosexual activities are the main predictors among females.

When Kimberly Farrell, currently president of Unlimited Performance, a training consultation company based in Highland Park, IL, was asked by the National Society of Pharmaceutical Sales Trainers – now the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers - to put together a workshop for the society's 2000 meeting, she immediately designed a questionnaire for top female executives, networked to identify top talent, and wrote and called female executives to interview them. The answers to her queries were presented in the workshop. "The turnout and response were so positive," said Farrell, "I was asked by the board of SPBT to facilitate a similar workshop in 2001. I redesigned the workshop to include a live panel of three top industry vice presidents to speak to our membership about career strategies, challenges, successes and insights."

The rates of new cancer cases and deaths for all cancers combined continue to decline in the United States, according to the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1973-1998, Featuring Cancers with Recent Increasing Trends," which was released by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. The report was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (vol. 93, no. 11).

A new survey by Rochester, NY-based Harris Interactive reveals that public perception of the pharmaceutical, health insurance, managed care and hospital industries continues to decline. The survey, which was conducted by telephone among a nationwide sample of 1,014 adults, measures how many people believe particular industries are doing a good or bad job of serving their customers.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has signed a bill that will allow hospitals, doctors and healthcare professionals across the state to share patient safety information.

The 50 most heavily prescribed drugs for seniors have risen in price, on average, at more than twice the rate of inflation, according to a new report issued by Washington-based Families USA. The report examined drug price increases through January of this year.

People who get migraines experience a decreased quality of life - not solely from their migraines, but also from the fear of future migraines, according to the "Life Impact Survey" of almost 4,000 headache sufferers.

London, United Kingdom-The UK OTC trade association supports the Community Pharmacy Action Group (CPAG) in its decision to withdraw a court case regarding the price-fixing of OTC drugs after the judge said there was little evidence that abolition of price maintenance would harm community pharmacists. The withdrawal brings an end to a long-running court battle pitting the pharmaceutical industry against an equally powerful corporate enemy, the supermarkets.

Basel, Switzerland—Roche, which recently slashed its work force by 3,000, maintains that it will remain independent even after the sale of 20 percent of the company to Novartis. Franz Humer, the troubled company’s chairman, says the founding family supports Roche’s strategy.

European Union-The European Commission’s ban on GlaxoSmith–Kline’s dual pricing policy in Spain halts one of Big Pharma’s attempts to prevent parallel imports in Europe.

Is the pharmaceutical industry surrounded by its critics? Can the industry be liberated from the moral bind others want to impose on it? Those are questions I asked and attempted to answer in two recent editorials (PE April and June 2001). Actually, the simple answer was yes to both. But other answers prove more complex.

Epsom, Surrey, United Kingdom—Pharmaceutical companies struggle to be taken seriously when they talk of facing pressures. A quick look at the bottom line often suggests they are overstating their worries. But new evidence shows they are being squeezed by generic competition and falling R&D output.