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12th Annual Pharm Exec 50
Primer Blog "específico" de Marketing Farmacéutico para países de habla hispana.
MADRID, May 24 (Reuters) - Spanish blood products firm Grifols expects to close its planned $4 billion takeover of peer Talecris at the beginning of June, following U.S. regulatory approval.
"Once approval is received we expect to close the deal during the first days of June, thus starting the integration process," Grifols said in a statement after a shareholders' meeting in Barcelona on Tuesday.
The statement from Grifols -- which makes medicines such as intravenous immune globulin (IVIG), albumin and other products from blood plasma -- indicated that the U.S. Federal Trade Commission's rubber stamp is near.
Grifols' tie-up with Talecris will create the world's third-largest maker of blood plasma products, competing with Baxter International Inc and Australia's CSL. (Más)
LONDON, May 27 (Reuters) - In an industry first, drugmaker AstraZeneca is scrapping payments for doctors to attend international medical congresses.
The move follows increased scrutiny of the $850 billion-a-year industry's potentially undue influence on prescribers and could put pressure on rivals to follow suit.
AstraZeneca chief executive David Brennan announced the change of policy in low-key fashion at an industry conference in Istanbul earlier this month.
"We have decided that we will no longer pay for doctors to attend international scientific and medical congresses but will instead focus our educational efforts on local educational opportunities for healthcare professionals," he said.
As healthcare costs rise worldwide, concern has grown about financial ties between doctors and drugmakers. That has already led to bans on lavish entertainment and the end to a range of free gifts from pens to mugs to computer accessories.
AstraZeneca's decision to stop paying for medics to fly to international medical and scientific meetings has taken things to a new level.
Cierto grado de osadía y determinación, sobre todo en determinados contextos y en su justa medida, son necesarios para alcanzar el éxito en numerosos oficios. Y no hace falta acudir a ejemplos de la política internacional o las altas finanzas, un ambiente en el que Strauss-Kahn se ha desenvuelto con soltura durante toda su vida. El problema aparece únicamente cuando estos rasgos se expresan de forma exagerada y, a veces, patológica.
El amor desmedido por uno mismo puede desembocar en una falta de empatía hacia los demás y en sentirse con derecho a aquello que está prohibido para el resto. Estas dos cualidades, narcisismo (amor patológico por uno mismo) y reactancia (impulso por desafiar las normas), son los que mejor explican el perfil del violador de acuerdo con un estudio realizado en 2002 por investigadores de la Universidad Case Western Reserve, en Cleveland (Estados Unidos).
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El psicólogo social Roy Baumeister y sus colegas, autores del estudio antes mencionado, explican así su teoría de la violación, como una agresión guiada por el narcisismo y 'reactancia': "Un hombre desea sexo con una mujer particular y piensa que tener sexo con ella debería ser una opción para él. Ella rechaza sus avances, sin embargo, y por tanto elimina esa posibilidad. Él se enfrenta entonces a una decisión: aceptar la negativa o usar la fuerza para obtener sexo. La 'reactancia' provoca el impulso de reclamar la opción perdida, y el narcisismo incrementa la posibilidad de tomar el camino de la coerción".
De acuerdo con este modelo, el mecanismo que pondría en marcha la agresión en el cerebro del atacante sería un desproporcionado deseo de control sobre sus propias decisiones. La mayoría de la gente entiende que su libertad queda anulada en el momento en que colisiona con la integridad física de otra persona (si no antes). Pero el violador no es capaz de aceptar que la decisión no esté en sus manos, ni depender de la voluntad de otros.
Dominique Strauss-Kahn concedió una entrevista al diario Libération a finales de abril. Declaraba temer un golpe bajo del actual ministro de Interior francés, Claude Guéant. Admitía que uno de sus «puntos débiles» eran las mujeres y que temía la posibilidad de un montaje del tipo «una mujer violada en un párking a quien se le prometen 500.000 o un millón de euros para que invente tales historias». De confirmarse como ciertas las acusaciones de agresión sexual a una camarera, tendríamos que concluir que Strauss-Kahn estaba anunciando, atribuyéndolo a una conspiración exterior, aquello que realmente era su intención inconsciente. Él sabía de su ansia de dominio sexual. Sabía que el principal peligro para su carrera era él mismo. Por eso hizo lo que anunció que le harían. Se trata de una profecía de autocumplimiento.
Strauss-Kahn debe asumir las consecuencias plenas de su acto sin ampararse en el recurso fácil a una supuesta psicopatología bajo la modalidad de «adicción al sexo». La fórmula de «no soy yo, es mi enfermedad», es un modo frecuente de no asumir la responsabilidad de los propios actos. Por eso la psicopatología no debe ser una coartada. De lo contrario, nadie sería culpable de nada bajo la premisa de que, si alguien hace algo malo, «tiene que estar mal». Si lo admitimos, solo la enfermedad sería culpable. La psicopatología no exime de la ética. Sin embargo, y sin disculpar un ápice la conducta de Strauss-Kahn, sí conviene destacar el carácter autopunitivo de la misma. Agrede, pero se autoagrede al mismo tiempo. Se provoca exactamente el mismo daño que declaró que otros le harían. El castigo autoinfligido es enorme, por eso no se puede descartar la existencia de un sentimiento inconsciente de culpabilidad. Ya Freud destacó que la culpa puede llevar al crimen buscando el castigo. Tal vez el socialista, que también veía en el dinero otro de sus puntos débiles, se autoprohibió ser presidente de Francia.
Manuel Fernandez Blanco (Psicoanalista)/La Voz de Galicia 19.5.2011
Forty-seven cases of sensorineural hearing loss with a temporal association with PDE-5 inhibitor ingestion were obtained from both published literature and pharmacovigilance agencies. Cases had a mean age 56.6 years, male-to-female ratio of 7:1. Eighty-eight percent of reports were unilateral with an even left/right distribution. Hearing loss occurred within 24 hours of ingestion of PDE-5 inhibitor in 66.7% (n = 18) of cases. Sildenafil accounted for over 50% of cases.
There is increasing evidence that PDE-5 inhibitors may induce sensorineural hearing loss via plausible physiological mechanisms. There needs to be more awareness of this disabling side effect among healthcare professionals responsible for prescribing this drug.
As more drug companies supply their employees with iPads, sales reps are increasingly paranoid about their employers’ ability to spy on them. In fact, though, they should really be worried about whether companies will even need humans to promote pharmaceuticals in the future.
The iPad is driving three trends in pharmaceutical marketing right now:
Pfizer (PFE) believes it will save $500,000 a year by giving new sales reps iPads instead of “several large boxes of textbooks and manuals.” Printed training materials for new reps can cost up to $1,000 per rep , but an iPad can be reused for each new incoming class of employees.
Other companies rolling out iPads to their reps include Stryker(SYK), Medtronic (MDT), Eisai, Novartis (NVS), AstraZeneca(AZN), Sunovion, ProStrakan and Millenium.
Novartis CEO Joe Jimenez believes iPads will prevent reps from making illegal “off-label” pitches for drugs. In a March email to employees he wrote:
"Another benefit of having sales materials on the iPad is that our reps will be more compliant — unlike with paper versions, you can’t alter the electronic materials."
The resistance starts here
Novartis reps are already plotting their resistance to the devices on Cafe Pharma, the drug industry’s anonymous gossip website. There’s a thread on “beating the iPad” here and one on preventing the iPad from tracking you here.(Más)
Ver también:
US drugmakers currently have 851 medicines in development for diseases which disproportionately affect women, says a new industry report.
The products, which are all now in human clinical trials or awaiting Food and Drug Administration (FDA) review, include 139 potential treatments for cancers affecting women - 91 for breast cancer, 49 for ovarian cancer and nine for cervical cancer, says the report, from the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America (PhRMA).
There are also 114 potential new treatments for arthritis and musculoskeletal disorders, says the group, noting that 60% of US patients with some type of arthritis or related conditions are female. 83 new treatments are in R&D for Alzheimer's disease - two-thirds of the 5.4 million Americans living with the disease are women - and 72 for depression and anxiety, which affect almost twice as many women as men.
By JEANNE WHALEN
Big pharmaceutical companies have found replacements for the army of sales representatives they've laid off in recent years: digital sales tools that seek to sell doctors on drugs without the intrusion of an office visit.
Tens of thousands of pharmaceutical sales reps have been eliminated in the U.S., creating a void that drug makers are now increasingly filling with websites, iPad apps and other digital tools to interact with doctors who prescribe their treatments.
Doctors can use the tools to ask questions about drugs, order free samples and find out which insurers cover certain treatments. Sometimes drug-company representatives will engage them in live chat, or phone them back if they have more questions.
The changes are designed to cut costs and to reach doctors in ways other than the traditional office visit, which many busy physicians say they find intrusive and annoying. In 2009, one of every five doctors in the U.S. was what the industry calls a "no see," meaning the doctor wouldn't meet with reps.
Just a year later, that jumped to one in four, according to Bruce Grant, senior vice president of Digitas, a digital marketing agency of Publicis Groupe SA that has created tools for companies including AstraZeneca PLC and Sanofi-Aventis SA. About three-quarters of industry visits to U.S. doctors' offices fail to result in a face-to-face meeting, he adds.
Most companies say they're using digital tools to supplement personal sales calls, but widespread layoffs in the sector suggest that technology is replacing, not just supplementing, human reps.
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Danish drug maker Novo Nordisk AS says it hasn't cut its U.S. sales force over the past five years but is still adding digital marketing tools. Late last year the company launched a website and iPad/iPhone application called Coags Uncomplicated, which offers tools to help doctors diagnose bleeding disorders. The site and app include a plug for Novo Nordisk's drug NovoSeven, which helps stop bleeding related to acquired hemophelia.
Citing data from market-research firms, Eddie Williams, head of Novo Nordisk's biopharmaceutical business in the U.S., said 72% of U.S. doctors own a smartphone, and 95% of them use it to download medical applications. Novo Nordisk has several other applications available on iTunes, including one that helps doctors calculate blood-sugar levels. Novo Nordisk is a major seller of insulin and other diabetes treatments.
Other companies offering iPhone and iPad apps for doctors include Sanofi-Aventis, Merck, Pfizer.inc., GlaxoSmithKline PLC and Novartis AG.
Eli Lilly & Co. set up lillyconnect.com in 2002 as a new channel for marketing its drugs to doctors. But the company has since shut the site down, according to a Lilly spokesman, who says the site "outlived its goals." He says Lilly is now considering "newer on-demand portals" that will allow doctors to "access information instantly as they are treating patients."
Ver tambien:
“Dum loquimur,
fugerit in vida aetas:
CARPE DIEM
quam minimum credula postero”
“Mientras hablamos,
habrá huido celosa la edad:
goza a bocados del momento,
confía lo menos posible
en el mañana”