- Pfizer halts biosimilar programs in crowded China market, sells plant to WuXi Biologics (fiercepharma.com)
China only approved its first biosimilar drug in 2019, but the market is already looking too crowded for one Big Pharma company...Pfizer has halted its biosimilar programs in China and is selling a biologics facility there to Chinese CDMO giant WuXi Biologics...The “difficult decision” came after a “comprehensive review of the biosimilars market and the company’s global manufacturing network,” Pfizer said...READ MORE
- Overworked, understaffed: Pharmacists say industry is in crisis, putting patient safety at risk (msn.com)
From the moment Marilyn Jerominski walks into her pharmacy every morning, her time is in demand. As pharmacy manager of a busy 24-hour Walgreens in Palm Desert, California, she is responsible for the safety and accuracy of the thousands of prescriptions the store dispenses every week..."There's so much stress," Jerominski said. "You're not only running to the drive-thru but to the front, to the vaccination station to give a vaccination, then to the phone. ... It's almost impossible for any human to keep that momentum day in and out."...Jerominski is one of an estimated 155,000 pharmacists working at chain drugstores who, over the past decade, have found themselves pushed to do more with less. They're working faster, filling more orders and juggling a wider range of tasks with fewer staff members at a pace that many say is unsustainable and jeopardizes patient safety...READ MORE
- How might Pharma buddy up with Alexa? Bayer Consumer’s first interactive voice ad is food for thought (fiercepharma.com)
Alexa, show me the future of drug advertising? Bayer Consumer Health's first-ever Alexa interactive ad allows consumers to buy an OTC product by talking to the Amazon device—and may foreshadow broader trends in the industry...The U.K. ad for Bayer’s Berocca Boost, a vitamin and caffeine tablet, is running as a trial during programming streamed by Global...Launching the app brings up voice options to either order the product or hear more information about it. If the listener chooses to order, Alexa asks whether they’d like to use a default payment method and address. One yes later, Berrocca Boost is on its way and the original radio program returns...While dropping an OTC product into an Amazon cart via voice app is a long way from fulfilling a physician-ordered prescription medicine the same way, the Bayer trial foreshadows what's possible even in the more regulated pharma world...READ MORE
- Pharma’s reputation rehab: A whopping two-thirds of Americans now offer a thumbs-up, Harris Poll finds (fiercepharma.com)
Almost two-thirds of Americans now give the pharma industry a thumbs up. It’s a stunning reversal from just one year ago when only about one-third (32%) rated the industry positively, according to The Harris Poll surveys...In its most recent February poll, 62% rated the pharma industry as a 5, 6 or 7 on a 7-point scale, with 1 equating to “very bad” and 7 to “very good.” That’s an increase of 30 percentage points since January 2020, before the pandemic hit U.S. shores...And that's a key point: The hockey-stick upturn stems directly from pharma's proactive response to COVID-19...READ MORE
- Why is FDA reopening a drug-naming study just 3 months after issuing new guidance? (fiercepharma.com)
Drug names often draw curiosity and confusion—and they always get a once-over by the FDA. The agency is more than usually interested these days, though...After a round of new guidance issued in December, the FDA is dipping back into the issue by reopening a proposed study to determine how drug names influence consumers and healthcare providers...Its December report “Best Practices in Developing Proprietary Names for Human Prescription Drug Products” includes suggestions for drugmakers and their naming agency partners to avoid misbranding violations...READ MORE
- GlaxoSmithKline’s doctor payments double as relaxed policy plays out (fiercepharma.com)
GlaxoSmithKline payments to doctors are on the rise again, as its relaxed payment policy continues. It notched a 40% increase from $11 million in 2017 to more than $15 million in 2019 in the U.S., likely reflecting its loosening of a formerly strict physician payment policy...The company's 2016 policy...banned direct payments to doctors speaking on behalf of the pharma and contributed to a hefty drop in payouts from $30.6 million in 2016 to $11 million the following year, according to data from the U.S. Open Payments database. GSK’s tally dropped even further in 2018 to $8.9 million before increasing in 2019...READ MORE
- Gilead cuts jobs in California, moving some to new North Carolina business center (fiercepharma.com)
Gilead Sciences’ new business service center is a win for North Carolina but comes with some losses for the company's home state of California...The Foster City-based pharma plans to cut 178 jobs in California effective May 30...It’s “the latest example of a major Bay Area company moving workers to a cheaper location”...Half of the jobs are expected to shift to Gilead's now-underway Research Triangle Park service center in North Carolina...Under a North Carolina economic development and jobs grant program, Gilead can earn up to $10 million in reimbursement payments over 12 years through the project. North Carolina estimates it will see an annual economic gain of more than $39 million...READ MORE
- FTC joins overseas antitrust regulators in reexamination of pharma M&A (biopharmadive.com)
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission will join European, British and Canadian regulators, as well as with counterparts at the U.S. Justice Department and states attorneys general, to update their approach to reviewing pharmaceutical acquisitions, a move the commission's acting chair said was prompted by the "high volume of these mergers," increasing drug prices and other anti-competitive issues...Antitrust regulators watch drugmaker mergers closely to determine whether tie-ups could impede development of newer and potentially better medicines...READ MORE
- Patent protection barriers not holding back vaccine production: drug groups say (reuters.com)
Manufacturing capacity and ingredients shortages are the main bottlenecks to expanding COVID-19 vaccine production, several global drug groups said...not patents that some critics are demanding be removed...“IP (intellectual property) rights is not the issue,” said Thomas Cueni, who heads the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations...“The bottlenecks are the capacity, the scarcity of raw materials, scarcity of ingredients, and it is about the know-how.”...READ MORE
- J&J Covid-19 Vaccine Authorized for Use in U.S. (msn.com)Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine scores FDA authorization, adding key third shot to U.S. supply (fiercepharma.com)
The first single-dose Covid-19 vaccine, a shot from Johnson & Johnson, was authorized for use...the third issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, will give health authorities a desperately needed new source of doses as they scramble to ramp up inoculations ahead of elusive emerging strains...J&J said it has begun shipping the vaccine to the U.S. government, which is managing allocation and distribution. That indicates first doses could be administered during the coming week...READ MORE