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According to the Washington-based National Committee for Quality Assurance's fourth annual State of Managed Care Quality report – an assessment of the industry's performance and the impact improvements will have on Americans' health – health maintenance organizations made their largest gains ever in 1999 in every region of the country and across every single clinical quality measure NCQA examines. The report, which is based on an analysis of health plan performance data from Quality Compass 2000, NCQA's database of managed care information, looks at data submitted by 466 health plans that cover some 51 million people. It also examines Americans' perceptions of managed care.

Washington Gov. Gary Locke unveiled a plan to help senior citizens purchase prescription drugs at lower costs.

For John Lumley, who is in his 11th year as a sales rep in Johnstown, PA, for Janssen Pharmaceutica, working in a small town is challenging, but lends a valuable perspective on the personal aspects of selling. Without access to the events and programs available in metropolitan areas, he has learned to watch for unique opportunities to make contact with his physicians and take the time to get to know them as individuals.

The number of pharmaceutical company-sponsored physician meetings and events skyrocketed from 70,000 in 1993 to 280,000 in 1999, according to Newtown, PA-based Scott-Levin's Physician Meeting & Event Audit. Between 1998 and 1999, the number of events held for doctors jumped 25%.

I have been in pharmaceutical sales for less than a year, and the following are the things that I've learned.

What to focus on when it comes down to you.

A business plan and achievement log can help.

Decode Genetics, Reykjavik, Iceland, and Basel, Switzerland-based F. Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd. announced that scientists at Decode have successfully mapped a novel gene that contributes to the occurrence of the common form of Alzheimer's disease.

A recently published House Government Reform Committee staff report criticized the Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control for routinely allowing scientists with conflicts of interest to serve on two influential advisory committees that make recommendations on vaccine policy.

Question your way through opening, probing and closing.

In an effort to stimulate women's health research across a variety of disciplines, the National Institutes of Health announced that it will fund 11 awards to support development of new research in women's health. The program, Building Interdisciplinary Research Careers in Women's Health, seeks to increase the number of researchers working on women's health issues and to mentor junior researchers in an interdisciplinary scientific setting by pairing them with senior investigators.

The U.S. Court of Appeals, Federal Circuit in Washington, D.C., has ruled in favor of Pomona, NY-based Barr Laboratories Inc.'s double patenting claim against the patents protecting Indianapolis-based Eli Lilly and Co.'s Prozac® (fluoxetine HCl) anti-depressant. The decision strikes down the patent that would have expired in December 2003; however, the Court of Appeals affirmed the decision of the lower court with respect to the expiration of the patent in February 2001.

A new study published in the Journal of Internal Medicine (vol. 15, no. 7) shows that samples handed out by pharmaceutical sales representatives may influence doctors to prescribe drugs they wouldn't have otherwise.

According to a new report by Washington-based Families USA, senior citizens can expect their drug prices to more than double in the next 10 years. The report is based on figures from the Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey, a household survey of about 12,000 elderly and disabled Medicare users.

Federal intellectual property protection laws have significantly delayed the entry of some generic drugs into the U.S. market, forcing consumers to incur billions of dollars in prescription drug costs that they otherwise might not have paid, according to an analysis released by the Washington-based National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation.

Applying the wisdom of emotion to sales.

Doctors are dishing more duties to physician assistants and nurse practitioners.

The pharmaceutical industry is fighting back against a Maine law that would require the industry to bargain with the state over pricing. The Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America has filed a challenge in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maine, claiming Maine's "Act to Establish Fairer Pricing for Prescription Drugs" is unconstitutional. The law, which was signed by Governor Angus King in May of 2000 and took effect the following August, allows the state to collectively negotiate rebates on drugs from pharmaceutical companies, which would then be sold at lower costs through participating pharmacies. The law also authorizes government price controls if state officials are not satisfied with the price decreases by July 2003.

Pre-call planning is a necessity if you're going to move your physicians and your productivity to another level.

Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, reported that they have identified a single gene that lends some cancer cells the ability to metastasize.

New guidelines designed to address the alarming rise in bacterial resistance to antibiotics have been issued by The Sinus and Allergy Health Partnership, with representation from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Food and Drug Administration. The guidelines were developed to stem antibiotic resistance by helping health professionals to more accurately diagnose acute bacterial rhinosinusitis, reduce the use of antibiotics for non-bacterial infections and recommend the use of the most effective antibiotics when rhinosinusitis is likely.

At the May 7-10 Annual Conference of the National Society of Pharmaceutical Sales Trainers, the membership voted to change its name to the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers.

Results from the first study within the healthcare industry documenting how implementation of a three-tier prescription co-pay plan affects pharmaceutical and medical utilization and expenditures, continuation with chronic medications and plan enrollees were presented at the fourth annual Express Scripts Outcomes Conference, held in St. Louis.

Despite a booming national economy, private and public health insurance coverage continues to decline for Americans at all income levels, while American voters, who continue to view healthcare as an important topic, seem unmoved on the issue, according to two studies published in Health Affairs (vol. 19, no. 4).

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that would provide prescription drug coverage under Medicare to seniors and the disabled. The bipartisan proposal calls for a public-private partnership to let senior citizens choose between competing plans for coverage that they feel best meets their needs.

There's no better way to attract a doctor's attention than to mention his or her name.

Between 55% (in Germany) and 93% (in the United States) of PCPs have accessed the Internet, according to I.MD 2000, a global study conducted by Montreal-based P\S\L Research. Projections made based on stated future intentions indicate that by the second quarter of 2001, between 75% (in Germany and Italy) and 97% (in the United States) of primary care physicians will have accessed the Internet.

The National Institutes of Health announced the formation of the international HIV Prevention Trials Network to develop and test promising non-vaccine strategies to prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. The global initiative will explore alternative measures, besides AIDS vaccines, that may be able to block or reduce infection with HIV. The network will constitute NIH's largest comprehensive multicenter network dedicated to this task, comprising core operational, data and laboratory centers, as well as research sites located worldwide in Africa (Malawi, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe), Asia (China, India and Thailand), Europe (Russia), South America (Peru) and the United States.