- Pharmacy Week in Review: January 22, 2016 (pharmacytimes.com)
Mike Glaicar, Business Development: Pharmacy Times...(PTNN) This weekly video program highlights the latest in pharmacy news, product news, and more.
- Pharma companies turn to LinkedIn to engage (mmm-online.com)
While the three granddaddy social networks, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube, have spent a decade publicly duking it out for share of human attention-span and commercial usefulness, LinkedIn has quietly and efficiently evolved to become an essential pillar of corporate practice, for individuals and organizations alike...LinkedIn has been something of an enigma and part of the reason has been the difficulty of pinpointing its core purpose. For a long time, it was seen as a professional advancement network, crudely dubbed “Facebook for jobs.” But while career advancement and recruitment is still a major function, over time LinkedIn has evolved into an effective publishing platform for professional content, which has had profound implications for corporate communications and marketing activities...A big part of LinkedIn's appeal lies in the high level of engagement of its members and the potential for precise targeting of content...In the healthcare space, membership encompasses all stakeholder groups: pharma companies, patients, healthcare professionals, marketing agencies, hospitals, investors and, of course, employees...The evolution of LinkedIn...to a publishing platform has had a profound effect on social-media responsibilities within pharma organizations...LinkedIn is now a fully fledged communications vehicle...Regulatory considerations are obviously paramount with any pharma-generated social-media activity...
- Pfizer looks to Russian partnership to produce some of its meds there, report says (fiercepharma.com)Pfizer to launch joint production with Russia’s Polysan in St. Petersburg — source (tass.ru)
Russia's economy has gotten ugly in the past few years, but that has not dampened the enthusiasm of Big Pharma, which continues to like the look of one of the world's largest emerging markets. Pfizer is reportedly the next up with plans for a partnership to produce some of its meds there...Pfizer is only days away from reporting plans to form a joint venture with Russian drugmaker Polysan to produce Pfizer meds in St. Petersburg...A spokesperson for Polysan would not comment directly but said its policy "is aimed at development of local pharmaceutical industry, including via cooperation with leading global pharma producers."Polysan has its own portfolio of four products that it produces at plants in St. Petersburg and Belgorod, as well as a neurological drug it produces with Germany's Stada...
- Samsung and Biogen win first EU approval for an Enbrel copycat (fiercebiotech.com)Samsung Bioepis Enters the European Biopharmaceutical Market with Benepali®, the First Fusion Protein Biosimilar Approved by the European Commission (finance.yahoo.com)
A joint venture between Biogen and South Korean giant Samsung won Europe's first approval for a lower-cost version of Amgen and Pfizer's blockbuster Enbrel, planning to launch its injection in the coming weeks...The two companies, doing business as Samsung Bioepis, convinced European regulators to clear their Benepali for all of Enbrel's approved indications, including rheumatoid arthritis, psoriatic arthritis, spondyloarthritis and plaque psoriasis…As for Amgen...believes its hold on Enbrel's U.S. rights will keep it safe from a biosimilar challenge in the coming years. In 2011, Amgen secured new patents related to the antibody that the company says will protect the treatment from competition through 2029. Novartis, leading the charge among Enbrel biosimilars developers in the U.S., is hoping to win approval for its version of the treatment this year while mounting a legal challenge on those patents.
- Walgreens CEO Pessina Says Consumer Drug Prices Should Be Lower (bloomberg.com)
Walgreens Boots Alliance Inc. Chief Executive Officer Stefano Pessina said drug prices should be lower for consumers...Costs in the U.S. and other countries are exploding...“It should be lower prices to the end users,”...Pessina, a serial acquirer who built up his British drugstore company Alliance Boots through more than three decades of mergers before selling it to Walgreens, made the comments as drug increases are drawing political scrutiny in the U.S. The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform is holding a Jan. 26 hearing on the issue, and has asked companies including Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc. for details on how they price their products.
- Express Scripts sued by compounding pharmacies for alleged antitrust practices (statnews.com)
For the second time since Express Scripts began blocking coverage of hundreds of ingredients used to make compounded medicines, several compounding pharmacies have filed a lawsuit accusing the pharmacy benefits manager of using illegal tactics...In the latest instance, a half-dozen compounding pharmacies have charged Express Scripts with violating antitrust laws and is attempting to force them out of business...Express Scripts has taken “a series of unreasonable restrictions and rules that would make it impossible for [the compounding pharmacies] to fill prescriptions” for patients “and obtain reimbursements that would cover their costs,”...The company and the other benefits managers “employed tactics designed to ensure that the compounding pharmacy industry …cannot survive.”...The move to cut back on covered ingredients has riled compounding pharmacies...the Food and Drug Administration has cracked down on compounding pharmacies by increasing the number of inspections, and, in rare cases, taking legal action to halt allegedly unsafe practices. The justifiable emphasis on safety has forced many compounding pharmacies to enhance operations...The compounding pharmacies are striking back. In November 2014, three others filed a lawsuit claiming Express Scripts illegally blocked legitimate prescriptions and unfairly forced patients to seek more expensive medicines or simply not seek treatment. The pharmacies maintained the benefits manager violated federal law because it lacks authority to essentially alter terms of health plans.
- Pharma’s December TV spending sags; Pfizer and BMS’ Eliquis rises to top (fiercepharmamarketing.com)
While pharma TV ad spending among the top 10 slowed overall in December, new brands and ongoing promotions still kept the airwaves humming with DTC ads. Spending for the top 10 was $107 million, down from $114 million in November, according to data gathered by real-time TV tracker iSpot.tv....Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb anticoagulant Eliquis rose to the top spot, with the companies plunking down almost $16 million on two different TV spots for the drug...New additions included Pfizer's smoking cessation drug Chantix, which may have been a bid for New Year's resolution-makers, along with Type 2 diabetes meds Toujeo, from Sanofi, and Farxiga, from AstraZeneca. GlaxoSmithKline's respiratory drug Breo Ellipta also joined the top 10 at No. 8...
- Eliquis, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb anticoagulant, Est. spend: $15.9 million, “Turn Around Your Thinking”
- Prevnar 13, Pfizer pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine, Est. spend: $14.4 million, "One Step"
- Lyrica, Pfizer seizure and pain drug, Est. spend: $14.3 million, “Fibromyalgia Set Backs”
- Humira, AbbVie anti-inflammatory drug, Est. spend: $11.8 million, “Grocery Store”
- Chantix, Pfizer smoking cessation drug, Est. spend: $11.4 million, “Billy”
- Toujeo, Sanofi basal insulin for diabetes, Est. spend: $8.6 million, “Journal”
- Farxiga, AstraZeneca SGLT2 diabetes drug, Est. spend: $8.4 million, “Everyday People”
- Invokana, Johnson & Johnson SGLT2 diabetes drug, Est. spend: $8.2 million, “You're Not Alone”
- Breo Ellipta, GlaxoSmithKline respiratory treatment, $7.5 million, “Missing Piece”
- Xeljanz, Pfizer rheumatoid arthritis drug, $6.6 million, “Made for Better Things”
- 5 Accused of Stealing Drug Secrets From GlaxoSmithKline (nytimes.com)
Federal prosecutors in Philadelphia said on Wednesday that they had indicted five people, including two research scientists, on charges of stealing trade secrets about drugs to treat cancer and other diseases from GlaxoSmithKline...the two scientists, Yu Xue and Lucy Xi, worked at Glaxo’s research facility in Upper Merion, Pa., and emailed and downloaded confidential data about a dozen or more company products to associates who planned to sell and market the trade secrets through a company they set up in China, called Renopharma...to conceal their crime, Ms. Xue and two other associates, Tao Li and Yan Mei, agreed to put the proceeds in the name of Ms. Xue’s twin sister...who was also charged. Ms. Xi worked with Ms. Xue at Glaxo and was married to Mr. Mei...the defendants boasted that their company, based in Nanjing, had received some financial support and free laboratory space from the government and that its ultimate goal was to develop its own antibody drugs.
- Drug industry to fight superbugs together with governments (hosted.ap.org)Pharmaceutical Companies Sign Declaration to Combat Antimicrobial Resistance (pharmtech.com)
Dozens of makers of medicines and diagnostic tests have joined together in an unprecedented effort to tackle "superbugs" - infections that increasingly don't respond to drugs and threaten millions of people in countries rich and poor...74 drugmakers, 11 makers of diagnostic tests and nine industry groups have signed a groundbreaking agreement to work with governments and each other to prevent and improve treatment of drug-resistant infections...have signed the "Declaration on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance."...The declaration calls for steps including:
- governments committing funding to implement the World Health Organization's Global Action Plan to create programs ensuring that health systems use antibiotics appropriately, along with increasing use of fast diagnostic tests and boosting reimbursements for them to ensure patients get the correct treatment.
- better education of doctors and nurses on appropriate antibiotic use.
- improved infection control through better hygiene, vaccination and preventive treatments.
- reduced used of antibiotics in livestock.
- higher reimbursements for antibiotics and diagnostic tests in developed markets.
- more collaboration between researchers at drugmakers and those at universities and government.
- more access to antibiotics in countries around the world.
- Junior doctors suspend industrial action (bma.org.uk)
The BMA today decided to suspend a second period of industrial action by junior doctors planned for next week...Tens of thousands of trainees in England were due to provide emergency care-only cover for 48 hours, beginning next Tuesday...the association decided to halt the action while conciliation talks between the BMA, NHS Employers and the Department of Health continue...BMA junior doctors committee chair Johann Malawana said while differences still existed between the two sides in the contracts dispute, the association’s focus was on building on the initial progress made...He added: ‘It is important to be clear, however, that differences still exist between the BMA and the Government on key areas, including the protection of patient safety and doctor’s working lives and the recognition of unsocial hours. Significant, concrete progress will need to be made if future action, currently planned for 10 February, is to be averted.’