- Valeant, AstraZeneca played the Super Bowl ad game, but did they win? (fiercepharmamarketing.com)'Football Game' - Xifaxan (ispot.tv)'Best Kept Secret' - Jublia (ispot.tv)
Not to be left on the sidelines, several pharma companies took to the airwaves Sunday for the biggest ad show of the year, also known as the Super Bowl. With one of the largest consumer audiences on TV, dozens of advertisers jockey to get their messages in the game, this year at an estimated $5 million per 30 seconds...Valeant Pharmaceuticals nabbed two spots, one for its IBS-D fighter Xifaxan and another for anti-fungal cream Jublia...AstraZeneca ran an unbranded :60 spot addressing opioid-induced constipation, encouraging people to talk to their doctors "and ask about prescription treatment options." The ad included a callout to the website OICisdifferent.com...However, just being in the Bowl doesn't guarantee success with the cheese dip and beer-drinking crowd. In the all-important social conversation around the game, pharma spots ranked in the middle of the pack or even lower...AZ's OIC spot ranked highest among the pharma group at No. 28 for total social impressions, garnering more than 26 million by mid-Monday morning. Xifaxan, which debuted a follow up to its current campaign with new creative in which the 'Gut Guy' races to the restroom at a football game, ranked No. 54. Jublia continued its celebrity star theme...ranked No. 68...
- India’s Pharmaceutical Market to Skyrocket from $20B to $55B by 2020 (dddmag.com)
The pharmaceuticals market in India, valued at $20 billion in 2015, is set to soar to $55 billion by 2020, representing an impressive Compound Annual Growth Rate of 22.4 percent...India’s rapidly growing generics market is the primary driver of the nation’s pharmaceutical sector, with sales expected to soar by nearly 84percent to $26.1 billion in 2016. Generic drugs, with their low costs and easy accessibility, now dominate India’s pharmaceutical space, accounting for around 70 percent of the market...India supplies 20 percent of global generic medicines in terms of export volume, making the country the largest provider of generic medicines globally...Another driver of India’s pharmaceutical sector is the potentially lucrative biosimilars market, which is expected to increase to $40 billion globally by 2020, as biologic treatments are introduced for diseases such as diabetes, cancer, multiple sclerosis, and rheumatoid arthritis...
- SafeMed: Using pharmacy technicians in a novel role as community health workers to improve transitions of care (japha.org)
...the SafeMed program, which uses certified pharmacy technicians in a novel expanded role as community health workers (CPhT-CHWs) to improve transitions of care...The SafeMed experience demonstrates that...CPhT-CHWs are well suited for novel expanded roles to improve care transitions...can play a key role in care transition programs targeting superutilizing patients with complex medical and social needs. As CMS intensifies readmission penalties and providers bearing financial risk seek to reduce overall health care costs, low-cost CPhT-CHWs serving as pharmacist extenders may become an increasingly attractive component for health systems...CPhT-CHWs can assist with identification and reporting of potential DTPs identified during home visits and telephone follow-up and can coordinate with pharmacists in real time to enable patients to get targeted MTM when and where they need it. They can also assist pharmacists in scheduling outpatient CMRs and support sessions for the patients...In collaboration with state pharmacy boards, pharmacist associations, and regional community colleges, the SafeMed model can be successfully scaled to serve superutilizing patients in readmission hotspots throughout the country.
- Insurer Obamacare Losses Reach Billions Of Dollars After Two Years (forbes.com)
After two years offering uninsured Americans subsidized products on public exchanges, health insurance companies have been hard-pressed to find financial success in this segment of the Affordable Care Act with losses reaching billions of dollars for the industry...UnitedHealth Group lost more than $720 million on its public exchange business last year and United is a small player in this market compared to Anthem, which operates Blue Cross and Blue Shield plans in 14 states, and said money-losing Obamacare plans caused profits to fall 64 percent in the fourth quarter. Aetna, which hopes to finalize its acquisition of Humana later this year, said last week individual coverage sold under the health law "remained unprofitable" last year...For insurers, the problem has largely been a major increase in medical expenses from these new patients, who were previously uninsured. From an actuarial standpoint, the health plans say they didn’t know what they would be getting and therefore needed more healthy people to buy premiums to cover the costs of the sick.
- Pharma trade group launches ad campaign to blunt pricing criticism (statnews.com)
In response to mounting criticism over prescription drug prices, the pharmaceutical industry’s trade group is running a new ad campaign aimed primarily at federal and state lawmakers in hopes of shifting their focus away from controversy over costs...Under the banner "From Hopes to Cures," the effort does not mention pricing. Instead, the ads emphasize the "value of innovation" and advancing science, while adding select patient stories. Several million dollars will be spent on the campaign, which will appear on social media — such as Facebook and Twitter — as well as on radio and in print. Ads will not run on television...The campaign by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, which represents the largest drug makers, emerges as the industry is getting skewered over pricing... the industry trade group wants to influence the influencers and choke off the possibility that lawmakers will take action...the ads will also run in some states, a PhRMA spokeswoman tells us, although those states have not yet been selected. That decision is designed to counter moves by some states where bills have been introduced in response to rising prices.
- Two hospital employees fired for leaking Jason Pierre-Paul’s record after fireworks mishap (healthcareitnews.com)
New York Giants player’s info ended up on Twitter after doctors amputated his finger...Two employees of Jackson Memorial Hospital have been fired for accessing and leaking the medical records of New York Giants defensive end Jason Pierre-Paul after the football star lost part of his hand in a July 4, 2015 fireworks accident...The hospital, in its statement, said it had chosen not to comment earlier due to litigation surrounding the incident that has since been settled..."As part of our investigation into the breach, it was discovered that two employees inappropriately accessed the patient's health record. That finding resulted in the termination of both employees," officials said in the statement..."Protecting the privacy of our patients is a top priority at Jackson Health System. Any time we have allegations of a breach, we immediately and thoroughly investigate."
- ASHP and APhA agree on new PGY1 Community-based Pharmacy Residency Programs standards (americanpharmacynews.com)
The American Society of Health-System Pharmacists and the American Pharmacists Association recently agreed on a new archetype for PGY1 Community-based Pharmacy Residency Programs...ASHP and APhA collaborated to prepare the guidelines, which has been the practice since the two agencies partnered up in 1999. The partnership was formed to accredit community-based residency training programs...The new model mirrors current trends regarding how today’s pharmacies are conducting business...The Community-based Pharmacy Residency Accreditation Taskforce that is responsible for the augmentation of the standards will continue its work on associated Competencies, Goals and Objectives as well as the document as a whole. All of these documents will be released this year. Mandatory execution of the new guidelines is expected by July 2017.
- Doctor gets 30 years to life for prescription drug deaths (statnews.com)
A Los Angeles-area doctor convicted of murder for prescribing exorbitant amounts of painkillers that left a dozen patients dead was sentenced...to 30 years to life in prison...The conviction of Dr. Hsiu-Ying "Lisa" Tseng and her long prison sentence are rare for a doctor...Minutes before she was sentenced, Tseng apologized in court to the families of her dead patients and others who became addicted to prescription drugs under her care...In handing down the harsh sentence, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge George Lomeli said he found it egregious that Tseng continued to write reckless prescriptions even after learning her patients were dying..."(She’s) a person who seemingly did not care about the lives of her patients in this case but rather appeared more concerned about distributing dangerous controlled substances in an assembly line fashion so as to collect payments which amounted to her amassing several million dollars," Lomeli said...
- Biotech stocks too risky? (video.cnbc.com)
RBC Capital Markets BioTech Analyst Michael Yee and CastleArk Management President & CIO Jerry Castellini discuss the bull and bear cases for biotech stocks.
- New Ohio law expands pharmacists’ care (pharmacist.com)
Congratulations to our pharmacist colleagues in Ohio! Under a new bill that was recently signed into law, Ohio pharmacists will now have more responsibility and fewer restrictions in collaborative practice...HB 188 provides new consult agreement provisions that allow Ohio pharmacists to order blood and urine tests, analyze the results of those tests, and modify a patient’s drug therapy regimen. The law also allows pharmacists to order medication refills in a small amount for patients with life-threatening illnesses when a physician can’t be reached. It will also streamline consult agreement paperwork so that multiple pharmacists can have a collaborative agreement with multiple physicians to oversee medications for multiple patients...This is a huge win for pharmacists in Ohio and is an excellent example of how collaboration among pharmacists, physicians, patients, and legislators can expand our scope of practice...