- Map of all medicines and their mode of action is created (pharmaceutical-journal.com)
Scientists have mapped all 1,578 licensed drugs licensed by the US Food and Drug Administration according to their mechanisms of action to help researchers visualize the ‘uncharted waters’ where they may find future treatments...Scientists at The Institute of Cancer Research in London...extracted data from their own drug database, as well as databases at European Bioinformatics Institute in Cambridge and the University of New Mexico. They matched each drug with prescribing information and data from published scientific papers to build up a picture of how each existing medicine works. The analysis, published in Nature Reviews Drug Discovery (A comprehensive map of molecular drug targets) reveals that there are just 667 unique human proteins targeted by existing approved drugs (or only 3.5% of the estimated 20,000 human proteins), and a further 189 drug targets in pathogenic organisms...This new map of drugs, created through the latest computational analytical technologies, will enhance our ability to use rational, data-driven approaches to identify the most promising future targets and treatment combinations for the next generation of cancer and other diseases...
- The Cost of Counterfeits (pharmtech.com)
The proliferation of counterfeit medicines is nothing new to pharma; however, the scale of the problem seems to be escalating, especially with the Internet providing an easy means for fraudsters to dispense their fakes. Counterfeiting has a devastating impact on public health and the economy. Not only are consumers paying for products of inferior quality, but their well-being is also put at risk. For genuine drugmakers, profits are diluted, but the repercussions extend beyond that...The European Union Intellectual Property Office reported...that the pharmaceutical industry is stripped of approximately €10 billion of revenue every year because of counterfeit medicines; this figure accounts for 4.4% of the sector’s sales...the lost sales translate into 37,700 jobs lost across the pharmaceutical sector in the EU as a result of legitimate manufacturers and distributors employing fewer people than they would do had this problem not existed…With serialization and track-and trace legislations being rolled out over the next few years, pharma is doing its part to secure its supply chain. The problem will be an ongoing challenge for the industry, but with advances in technology, it will become easier to detect the fakes in the near future.
- Global prescription drug spend seen at $1.5 trillion in 2021: report (reuters.com)
Global spending on prescription medicines will reach nearly $1.5 trillion by 2021, although the annual rate of growth will decrease from recent years, according to a forecast by Quintiles IMS Holding…based on wholesale pricing, is up nearly $370 billion from estimated 2016 spending. The United States will account for up to $675 billion of the $1.5 trillion...Annual spending growth over the next five years is forecast at 4–7 percent, primarily driven by newer medicines for cancer, diabetes and autoimmune diseases in developed markets...The report projects a slowdown in U.S. branded drug price increases, possibly a result of rising political pressure. It sees annual wholesale price increases of 8 to 11 percent and net prices rising 2 to 5 percent...The report predicts an average of 45 new drug launches each year, a historically high rate. While many will be very expensive treatments, the report sees rising costs partially offset by a higher level of drugs going off patent than in the previous five years. That includes the anticipated effect of more biosimilars - cheaper versions of high-priced biotech medicines - entering the market.
- Nanowear gains FDA approval for first-of-its-kind wearable: undergarment that tracks cardiac health (drugstorenews.com)
Nanowear, an early stage developer of cloth-based diagnostic monitoring nanosensor technology...announced that it has received FDA Class II 510(k) clearance for its first product, SimplECG, a remote cardiac monitoring undergarment...(it) collects continuous multi-channel ECG, heart rate and respiratory rate data from the garment and transfers it to a web-based portal for review by a physician, by way of a mobile application…it provides accreditation of the company's one-of-a-kind, cloth-based sensor technology as medical-grade...This is the first step and foundation of what we believe to be an extensive array of applications for our nanosensor technology – including numerous other electrical, biometric and biochemical signals that can be measured directly from the skin without conductive gels, adhesives or skin preparation. The market of applications for healthcare alone is a multi-billion-dollar opportunity, but as we look beyond to consumer, industrial, clinical research, military and public sector applications, the addressable market expands exponentially...
- Makers of Abilify drug settle with 43 states, including Nevada, for $19.5M (reviewjournal.com)
Nevada is expected to receive nearly $300,000 in a multistate settlement with a pharmaceutical company accused of marketing a drug to patient groups for which they didn’t have federal approval and mischaracterizing the drug’s risks...Bristol-Myers Squibb Company, which partnered with Otsuka America Pharmaceutical, Inc. to market antipsychotic drug Abilify, settled with 43 states for $19.5 million, according to an announcement Thursday by the office of Nevada Attorney General Adam Laxalt...The company was accused of marketing the drug to seniors with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia despite the fact the drug wasn’t approved for those purposes by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration...
- U.S. Doctors Still Over-Prescribing Drugs: Survey (realclearhealth.com)
Despite evidence that certain drugs aren't always necessary, doctors are still prescribing these treatments, a new survey of doctors reveals...Antibiotics are by far the drugs most frequently used in situations where they'll provide no value for patients. The survey found that more than a quarter of doctors surveyed (27 percent) said that antibiotics are often administered to patients when the drugs will do no good...antibiotics are prescribed to treat upper respiratory infections even though these are most often caused by viruses unaffected by the medication…Other treatments that doctors use frequently despite their questionable value include aggressive treatments for terminally ill patients (9 percent), drugs prescribed for chronic pain (7 percent), and dietary supplements such fish oil and multivitamins (5 percent), the survey revealed...Physicians also might be practicing defensive medicine to ward off potential malpractice suits, or trying to meet clinical performance measures that call for blanket treatments that must be applied to all patients...
- What Is Bioinformatics and How Does It Relate to Health Care? (pharmacytimes.com)
Tracy Glauser, MD—associate director of Neurology, Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center—discusses the role of bioinformatics in health care.
- Five things for pharma marketers to know: Wednesday, December 7, 2016 (mmm-online.com)
- President-elect Donald Trump told Time magazine that he “doesn't like what's happened with drug prices” and that he plans to bring down the cost of prescription medications. Time named Trump its Person of the Year on Wednesday. (Time)
- Mylan plans to lay off nearly 10% of its global workforce. A Mylan spokesperson said the job cuts are part of an efficiency strategy. (BioSpace)
- Pfizer was fined $107 million for overcharging the U.K.'s health system for a generic epilepsy drug, phenytoin sodium. The country's antitrust regulator said that Pfizer deliberately unbranded the drug to skirt a competition law. Pfizer said it plans to appeal the ruling. (WSJ)
- Celgene said its understanding of how its multiple myeloma drug Revlimid works in cancer patients is a boon for its R&D efforts in other diseases. The drugmaker currently has three drugs in its pipeline: CC-122 for diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, CC-220 for lupus, and CC-90009 for acute myeloid leukemia. (Bloomberg)
- ICYMI: GlaxoSmithKline said the CEO of ViiV healthcare, Dr. Dominique Limet, will step down and that Deborah Waterhouse, the company's SVP of primary care at GSK U.S. pharmaceuticals, will succeed him. ViiV Healthcare is an HIV specialty company formed in 2009 by GSK and Pfizer.
- McKesson’s Pharmacy Optimization team identifies 5 key pharmacy trends headed into 2017 (drugstorenews.com)
...the McKesson Pharmacy Optimization team...has identified the top five trends that will impact hospital and health system pharmacies in 2017...McKesson's advisory team addressed these trends with health system pharmacy leaders at the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists Midyear Clinical Meeting 2016...The role of the clinical pharmacist is rapidly expanding to stay ahead of the changing dynamics brought upon by healthcare reform...The expanding scope of pharmacists’ service and increasing clinical collaboration illustrate key trends and opportunities facing health system pharmacies in the coming year...here are the five trends McKesson's pharmacy optimization team identified:
- Continued Growth in Specialty Market
- Leveraging Pharmacy Analytics to Make Strategic Business Decisions
- Health System Pharmacy Seen as a Revenue and Margin Generator
- Centralizing Pharmacy Operations and Improving Clinical Services
- Future Directions for Reform and the Affordable Care Act
- FDA finalizes quality guidelines for contract manufacturers (biopharmadive.com)
The Food and Drug Administration has finalized guidelines, three-and-a-half years in the making, suggesting what should go into quality agreements between pharmaceutical companies and outsourced contract manufacturers...The agency's recommendations come at a time when fully two-thirds of pharmaceutical manufacturing is outsourced, putting significant demand on contract manufacturing organizations (CMOs)…Current Good Manufacturing Practice requirements apply to all contract facilities, including analytical testing labs...FDA recommends that owners and contract facilities implement written quality agreements delineating manufacturing activities to facilitate compliance with CGMP. The agency suggests that quality contracts between companies and CMOs include the purpose and scope of contract manufacturing services to be provided; provisions on how to resolve disputes and how to change manufacturing processes, and contract revision policies...