AstraZeneca: Es serio...Soriot, un francés en la corte (que fué) de Brennan. Viene de Roche.

AstraZeneca has recruited its new chief executive, Pascal Soriot, from Roche Holding, hoping his experience with biotechnology drugs and deal-making can revive a company battered by clinical trial failures and patent expirations.

Mr. Soriot, 53, has been chief operating officer of Roche’s pharmaceuticals division since 2010. The division has revenue of $34 billion, making it about the same size as AstraZeneca.

He will begin his new job on Oct. 1, AstraZeneca said Tuesday.

AstraZeneca’s chairman, Leif Johansson, said the timing of the move would let Mr. Soriot take part in an important strategy review, which will be completed by the end of the fourth quarter but will not change the group’s progressive dividend policy.

The London-based drug maker has been without a permanent chief executive since June 1, following the abrupt departure of David Brennan.

Mr. Soriot acknowledged that his new job would be a challenge, as the entire industry faces patent losses and pressure on prices. But he said in a statement, “The underlying strengths of AstraZeneca in delivering on its strategy are clear.” (Ver)

Ver también:

A David Brennan le dieron AZ_ote...

Pascal Soriot según Businessweek

Hoy es mi aniversario...

Pide que el camino sea largo.
Que muchas sean las mañanas de verano
en que llegues -¡con qué placer y alegría!-
a puertos nunca vistos antes.
Detente en los emporios de Fenicia
y hazte con hermosas mercancías,
nácar y coral, ámbar y ébano
y toda suerte de perfumes sensuales,
cuantos más abundantes perfumes sensuales puedas.

C. Cavafy / Viaje a Itaca

Hoy es el aniversario de este Editor.
Gracias Rosa...

Abro mis ojos al cielo (que me regalo) para agradecer a la vida...VIVIR.


SKYS from Daniel Gregoire on Vimeo.

Pharma Mergers Stories

The first half of 2012 has seen $44.6bn of global biopharma takeover activity, a 29% increase over a year ago. However, the number of deals done has remained fairly constant – backing up the view that more cash is increasingly being thrown at the R&D productivity problem.

But while individual deal values are creeping up, and replenishing big pharma revenues lost to generic competition is a clear driver, anything that could be described as a takeover frenzy still seems some way off, EvaluatePharma data show. Last year’s first half also gave hopes that M&A action was stepping up but these failed to materialise, and – unless the second half of 2012 lives up to the billing of the first – bullish biotech investors might find that the status quo has largely prevailed by the time the year is out (see table below).

So far this year the combined deal values are already equivalent to some 82% of the total done during the whole of 2011. But last year was heavily skewed in favour of the first half too, in which 87 deals were done for a combined $34.6bn, the subsequent second half slow down resulted in the less impressive 29% year-over-year increase. (Más)

Pasado...

Slide: F.Comas/Curso Postgrado Mktg.Farmacéutico Facultad Farmacia
Universidad Central de Venezuela (UCV)
(Click sobre imagen para ampliar)

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Presente

Orphan drugs are going "gangbusters..."? *

Small patient populations represent a huge market opportunity. Orphan drugs are one of the pharma industry's hottest growth markets, and new figures from Thomson Reuters underscores that the blistering rise in revenue will drive the development of the next generation of experimental products.

Over the past decade, the growth rate for orphan drug revenue has been 25.8%, significantly steeper than the 20.1% pace set by a control group of non-orphan therapies. And researchers for Thomson Reuters project that the orphans--a market now worth more than $50 billion--can continue to outpace the rest of the field, protected by special terms on exclusivity, strong subsidies for new research, shorter and less expensive timelines for development and waived regulatory fees.

Oncology represents the biggest disease category for new orphan drugs. About 40% of today's orphans are used to treat cancer, a reflection of the growing understanding of the way that genetic aberrations can be used to identify specific, small patient populations.

Top 10 orphan drugs en el mercado

Descarga reporte de Thomson Reuters

(*) gangbusters: Extremely successful, With great impact, vigor.../TheFreeDictionary by Farlex

Asi va lo del IVA...

Fuente:EFPIA / el Economista /

J&J...otra vez? no j...

Largest multi-state consumer settlement ever

New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman on Wednesday announced a record $181 million settlement with Janssen Pharmaceuticals and its parent company Johnson & Johnson to resolve charges of improper marketing and advertising of the powerful anti-psychotic drugs Risperdal and Invega.

The settlement, joined by 36 other states and the District of Columbia, represents the largest multi-state consumer protection-based pharmaceutical settlement in history. New York will receive nearly $9 million.

In the complaint filed Wednesday in New York County Supreme Court, Attorney General Schneiderman charged that from 1998 through at least 2004, Janssen Pharmaceuticals engaged in deceptive and misleading practices when it marketed Risperdal, Risperdal Consta, Risperdal M-Tab and Invega for off-label uses.

As a result of the states' investigation, Johnson & Johnson agreed to change its marketing of Risperdal and Invega, and to cease promoting “off-label” uses of the drugs not approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Off-label use refers to prescribing a drug for a condition other than what it’s been approved for, or to an age group other than that for which the drug was originally intended.

“Pharmaceutical corporations’ illegal promotion of drugs for off-label uses must stop. Consumers, including parents of children with serious mental disorders and vulnerable patients should be able to trust their doctor’s advice without fear that drug companies are manipulating their physician’s independent judgment,” Schneiderman said.

Ver anterior:

J&J acuerda pagar 1.000.000.000 dolares ($ 1 Billion) por...

Jo...J&J no paras de pagar. Ahora a "pasar por caja" en Arkansas / RISPERIDAL / RISPERDAL

UK: Digital channels aventajan a Medical Reps.

Research from Doctors.net.uk – the UK’s largest and most active network of medical professionals – suggests that doctors are increasingly turning to digital channels for independent product information; while time pressures are making it more difficult for them to see pharmaceutical reps face-to-face.

The research, which was conducted among more than 1,000 GPs across the UK, found that nearly a quarter of them (23%) said they preferred to obtain their own product information via independent online resources.

These findings follow earlier studies conducted by Doctors.net.uk which show that only 3% of doctors think that online pharma resources are credible and 42% never visit pharmaceutical websites.

The latest research found that

• 52% of GPs did not see any pharmaceutical sales representatives in a typical week and 26% of them saw only one pharma sales rep in that period.

• Lack of time was the most common reason cited by GPs for not seeing pharma sales reps (38%); while verbatim comments provided by 15% of respondents also revealed that seeing pharma reps was against practice policy for some and that a perceived lack of impartiality was a key concern.

• 68% of GPs said they were more likely to see a pharma sales rep if they had a sound knowledge of the disease their product was designed to treat.

• only 40% of GPs thought that pharma sales reps were adequately trained and able to add value to treatment decisions.

When asked what gave pharma sales reps credibility,

• 62% cited strong knowledge of relevant disease areas,
  
  
• 49% said product knowledge and
  
  
• 43% said a clear understanding of how the product compared to competitors.

Simon Grime, Managing Director of Communications at Doctors.net.uk, said: “Our research shows pharma rep sales are finding it increasingly difficult to meet with GPs face to face. This is partly due to GPs’ desire to conduct their own independent product research via the internet".

Será el futuro? (y el fin de...?)



Ver también:

Visita Médica: Adaptarse o...morir.

IMS diversifica...PharmaDeals & TTC

IMS Health has acquired PharmaDeals, the UK-based subsidiary of PharmaVentures, which specialises in storing online information about business transactions, licensing, and mergers and acquisitions activity within the global pharmaceutical industry.

Through the deal PharmaDeals will become part of IMS’s syndicated analytics and insights operation, helping healthcare clients with their real-time decision making in the areas of market assessment, forecasting and lifecycle and portfolio management. PharmaDeals maintains a web-based subscription database containing 46,000 records of industry transactions and 16 years of historical data. (Más)

PARSIPPANY, NJ, August 15, 2012 – IMS Health has acquired TTC, a Philadelphia-based benchmarking solutions and analytics company that helps life sciences organizations around the world plan for and negotiate the costs of clinical trials. TTC offers clients a robust set of clinical trial cost benchmarks, budgeting and negotiation tools to enhance the speed, efficiency and cost-effectiveness of their trial planning and management activities.

IMS will integrate its evidence-based, anonymized patient and treatment outcomes insights with TTC’s comprehensive cost data drawn from organizations that conduct nearly 80 percent of all commercial clinical studies. TTC maintains GrantPlan®, the world’s largest clinical grant benchmarking and negotiation database, and serves 17 of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies and eight of the ten largest Contract Research Organizations. This follows IMS’s April 2012 acquisition of DecisionView, a technology innovator that delivers clinical trial planning and performance solutions. The combination will enable pharma R&D teams to significantly improve the productivity of their clinical trials through unprecedented access to advanced analytics and decision-support tools. (Más)

Humor...es lunes: Y a partir de hoy a poner las cosas "en orden".