Author: Peter

The government of Japan is changing the lucrative brand-name pharmaceutical market as its population ages and requires more drugs with a push to make at least 80% of the government's drug spending on generics by 2020...International brands are losing out to generic makers under the policies of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe who is pushing his ministers to make price cuts for branded drugs and speed up the shift to generics...Japan, like China and other countries with ageing populations, sees generics as the main way to rein in ballooning healthcare costs and the shift is not only affecting international players, but also domestic companies like Tokyo-based Takeda and would offload much of its off-patent and generic products...

Healthcare software solutions company QS/1 this week announced that it had received a certification for the data security of its point-of-sale system. The company was certified under version 3.1 of the Payment Data Security Standard...Companies that receive PA-DSS certification have to create an application that doesn’t store such information as a credit card’s magnetic stripe, CVV or PIN. QS/1’s certification covers processing new EMV chip cards as well as end-to-end encryption of credit card data and tokenizing card data for customers who store it for recurring charges...Too many times we heard about retailers dealing with massive security breaches that compromise credit card data...Taking the steps to certify on the new 3.1 standard puts QS/1’s point-of-sale system at the forefront of credit card security.

Drugmakers, long reliant on using DTC ads to drive patients into doctor's offices, should rethink that strategy...The marketing model used to be big and bold out of the gate on day one...the industry is starting to challenge that model...The consumerization of healthcare is king, not the consumer...if a patient today requests a new drug or tries to refill an old one, that request may face more resistance from physicians with differing views about a specific medication or from payers that give certain medications preferred status on their formularies than it would have in the past...This raises questions about the effectiveness of traditional branded pharmaceutical advertising campaigns, which perform best in a market where the drug is broadly available...About 47% of Americans ask their doctor questions about a drug, while 30% ask the pharmacist. Nearly half of respondents—43%—say that their pharmacist always or frequently recommends an alternative brand or type of medication in order to reduce out-of-pocket costs...The role of the pharmacist in a formulary driven world is becoming far more dominant...The pharmacist is becoming as good a choice for health counsel...Marketers are seeing a need to better communicate with the pharmacist...

CVS Health...posted $41.1 billion for the fourth quarter ended Dec. 31, up 11%. For the year, CVS took in $153.3 billion, an increase of 10%...We enjoyed a successful year in 2015, highlighted by excellent performance across our enterprise and two key acquisitions that support our strategy for growth...We grew our core business with the acquisition of Target’s pharmacies and clinics and expanded our reach with the acquisition of Omnicare, the leader in long-term care pharmacy. At the same time, we achieved solid year-over-year growth in revenues, operating profit and earnings per share...We continue to win and gain share across our businesses...outstanding PBM selling season we had for 2016, with gross client wins of $14.8 billion. Our growth in the...specialty market continues to outpace the industry...the year total net revenues in the Pharmacy Services segment increased 13.5% to $100.4 billion...

With no signs of a resolution anytime soon, junior doctors in England have once again taken to picket lines across the country in protest against working and pay conditions being proposed by the government...Around 2,800 operations have reportedly been cancelled as doctors stage a 24-hour walk-out providing only emergency care, after several years of discussions with the government about a new contract have failed to find common ground...The British Medical Association is most concerned with the government’s refusal to recognise Saturday working as unsocial hours, which would see junior doctors take a drop in salary despite an 11 percent rise in basic pay, the removal of safeguards to ensure that doctors aren’t over-worked, as well as the threat to impose the proposed contract if a resolution isn’t reached...imposing the contract would not be a popular move. Almost 90 percent of junior doctors said they would consider resigning from the NHS if the government does so...

Medication errors injure thousands of patients annually, and while mistakes occur with all medication classes, those involving antiretroviral therapies are particularly troublesome...Past studies have suggested that errors are driven by prescribers’ lack of familiarity about antiretrovirals, patients’ ignorance about their complete regimens, and low patient health literacy...Antiretroviral stewardship, which involves educating prescribers and patients and reviewing orders prospectively, helps increase the use of evidence-based medication regimens...researchers addressed the impact of such stewardship on medication errors...The researchers made the following 3 key findings:

1. Medication error rates for patients admitted in the first year were high, but decreased over the 3-year period.
2. Half of the errors occurred in the first 24 hours after admission, especially during late-night and weekend hours when formal consults were unavailable.
3. Incorrect dosing was the most common error, followed by inappropriate use of proton pump inhibitors or histamine-2 receptor antagonists with atazanavir (Reyataz) or rilpivirine (Edurant).

...the study authors recommended initiating an antiretroviral stewardship team that includes infections disease-trained medical and pharmacy staff, as well as increasing staffing to review medications during late-night and weekend hours. They reported that health care systems can further minimize medication errors by triggering an automatic consult request when HIV diagnostic codes are added, or introducing a "hard stop" signaling an infectious disease or stewardship consult...

Walgreens...announced the launch of a new effort to combat drug abuse, introducing two programs that address contributors to the crisis.

1. ...Walgreens will install safe medication disposal kiosks in more than 500 drug stores in 39 states and Washington, D.C., primarily at locations open 24 hours. The program will make the disposal of medications — including opioids and other controlled substances — easier and more convenient while helping to reduce the misuse of medications and the rise in overdose deaths.
2. Walgreens also will make naloxone...available without a prescription at its pharmacies in 35 states and Washington, D.C., rolling out the program state-by-state throughout this year.

The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, one of the top bodies representing American pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies, said in an annual report that India's intellectual property rights protection is weak and the group added India to its "priority watch list."...The country's legal and regulatory systems "pose procedural and substantive barriers at every step of the patents process,"..."Not only is this a concern in the Indian market, but also in other emerging markets that may see India as a model to be emulated,"...since 2012 about 25 products "have had their patent rights undermined in India" and that "in 2015 alone, at least six products have faced issues due to the continued denial of applications" under India's patents act...PhRMA also said high tarrifs (tariffs) and taxes in India on APIs and finished products were a huge challenge for the industry and that India "collects more in taxes on pharmaceuticals than it spends on medicines."

National Association of Specialty Pharmacy (NASP) Executive Director James E. Smeeding, RPh, MBA, discusses the relationship between specialty pharmacies and accountable care organizations.

LinkedIn's professional social network appeals to business people, networkers and recruiters, but also to industries that tend to be more cautious on social media. Welcome, pharma...Healthcare, overall, and pharma is definitely on the developmental side of the LinkedIn spectrum...from an advertising perspective...But over the past three years, we've seen a huge growth in having these companies consider LinkedIn as a channel...Many drugmakers have taken a first step, usually by setting up a company page where drugmakers can build up followers and create an audience with employees, colleagues and associates. But pharmas are increasingly using LinkedIn for paid sponsorships and advertising. Sponsored updates and InMail campaigns are beginning to move from testing to a repeat marketing strategy among pharmas...InMail, in which sponsored messages are sent directly to targeted LinkedIn members inboxes, tends to be "safe" for pharma because email bypasses any open comment possibilities...I think there are a lot of opportunities for pharma companies to be the leader and the innovator across their competitive set...Professionals on LinkedIn are connected to peers, colleagues and managers so the platform allows for that much more engagement. You're not hiding behind a handle or showing pictures of family, this is your professional brand...