- Which drug makers do a good job getting poor patients access to their medicines? (statnews.com)
The pharmaceutical industry is regularly chastised for failing to do enough to ensure that people in low and middle-income countries have access to its medicines. Yet the real picture is actually more nuanced, according to a newly released report that finds some — but not all — drug makers are making headway...Some companies...are partnering to develop needed medicines. Others are pledging to waive or abandon patent rights and granting licenses so that generic versions of their drugs become available. At the same time, the report finds that much more can be done…“...progress is slower than many of us would like,”...executive director of the Access to Medicine Foundation…The foundation...compiled an index...Here are some key findings: GlaxoSmithKline led the index for the fifth time and was followed by Johnson & Johnson and Novartis, while Astellas had the poorest showing...the number of companies using equitable pricing strategies increased from 16 in 2012, to 18 in 2014, to 19 in 2016. Ischemic heart disease replaced HIV/AIDS as the disease with the most products with equitable pricing...As for drugs being developed...420 R&D projects that address specific needs of people in low and middle-income countries, up from 93 in 2014. The pipeline focuses heavily on five diseases —lower respiratory infections, diabetes, malaria, viral hepatitis and HIV/AIDS — that cause relatively large burdens and either have large commercial markets or are high priorities.
- Halloween Already? Big Pharma Marketers Try Terror Tactics to Scare Up Sales (adage.com)
Grandma as a menacing wolf. Parents whose carelessness leads to cancer in their kids. A teenager hospitalized after sharing a seemingly innocent kiss. Halloween may still be over a month away, but Big Pharma is already out to scare consumers...In recent months, several fear-instilling, often ominous commercials for medical devices, products and vaccines from drugmakers including Pfizer, GlaxoSmithKline and Mylan are airing in fairly heavy rotation…If you increase an individual's feeling that they're susceptible to a threat, and increase the perceived severity of that threat, people are more likely to take action...a trend with companies, especially ones with injectable drugs and vaccines, which also have big price increases, is to scare people into buying their product or getting their vaccine...Fear can be motivating until it's demotivating...There's a threshold at which we turn off and say, 'That's not me, that's someone else—my brain can't handle this level of risk and information.'...
- Public Citizen demands ‘black box’ warnings on gambling, sex urges for dopamine meds (fiercepharma.com)Reports of Pathological Gambling, Hypersexuality, and Compulsive Shopping Associated With Dopamine Receptor Agonist Drugs - abstract (archinte.jamanetwork.com)
A team of JAMA authors urged the FDA in 2014 to add "black box" warnings to dopamine agonists, linking the Parkinson's meds to pathological gambling, compulsive shopping and sexual obsessions...Public Citizen is upping the ante with a citizen petition to the agency, citing more than 80 studies supporting its claims...Public Citizen’s petition calls for stronger warnings on six FDA-approved medicines including GlaxoSmithKline’s Requip, Boehringer Ingelheim’s Mirapex and UCB’s Neupro. Used to treat Parkinson’s disease and restless leg syndrome, the medicines can cause uncontrollable urges that in turn lead patients to divorce, financial ruin and suicide attempts…
- GSK CEO: Big pharma should keep investing in R&D (cnbc.com)
GlaxoSmithKline CEO Andrew Witty attributes the company's success to sticking to the tried-and-true business model of investing in research and development and not transitioning to an acquisition model...the key is to be patient and to see the value of investing in innovation...What we have to stay focused on is the fundamentals of the value of innovation and discovery of medicines and vaccines that make a real difference to patients...The alternative acquisition model in the health care industry has drawn criticism during this election year. In theory, the M&A strategy can save companies significant sums as they can purchase mature, fully developed products without having to invest in R&D...
- Hard to swallow: emerging markets get tougher for drugmakers (finance.yahoo.com)
Emerging markets have lost their luster for Big Pharma making drug firms ever more dependent on the United States for growth just as American anger over high medicine prices is building...A few years ago, the developing world was seen as a savior as patent after patent expired across the United States and Europe, but emerging market sales growth at the top drug firms slowed to less than two percent in the latest quarter...Forecasts...now suggest the United States will account for 55 percent of sales growth between 2016 and 2020, with emerging markets only contributing 30 percent...Many companies' sales in developing economies come from so-called branded generics, or off-patent medicines that command a premium to those made by local suppliers because the Western drugmaker's name is a proxy for quality...That business is now under threat as governments promote cheaper unbranded products as a route to universal healthcare...There is a lot of emphasis on providing essential medicines, which is providing growth for cheap local generics but not necessarily for multinational companies…
- GSK and Google launch bioelectronics venture (pmlive.com)Q&A: Glaxo exec says bioelectronics is ‘not science fiction’ (statnews.com)
GlaxoSmithKline has joined forces with Google's Verily Life Sciences to establish a new company dedicated to the development of bioelectronic medicines...Galvani Bioelectronics - named for the 18th century Italian bioelectricity pioneer - will combine GSK's drug discovery and development expertise in disease biology with Verily's expertise in highly miniaturised technologies, including data analytics and software development for clinical application...Together, we can rapidly accelerate the pace of progress in this exciting field, to develop medicines that truly speak the electrical language of the body...Bioelectronic medicine is concerned with the electrical signals firing between the body's nervous system and organs, working to regulate the faulty nerve impulses that occur in many illnesses.
- UK pharma trade group on Brexit: ‘There’s a potentially negative story here’ (statnews.com)“UK must send strong signal it is open for business”, ABPI responds to Britain voting to leave the European Union (abpi.org.uk)
The aftermath from the Brexit vote in the United Kingdom is only first being digested the world over. As with so many other sectors, there are implications for the pharmaceutical industry. Some 70,000 people in the UK work for drug makers, including AstraZeneca and GlaxoSmithKline, which are based there. Will companies want to shift substantial portions of their operations elsewhere? The European Medicines Agency, which oversees product approvals, is also headquartered in London, raising questions about the ability of the UK’s own regulator, the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency, to fill that role. Then there is concern about government support for basic research. We spoke with Michael Thompson, who heads the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry, the large trade group, about these unknowns...
- GSK cuts vaccine price for refugees, bowing to pressure (reuters.com)
GlaxoSmithKline is cutting the price charged for its pneumococcal vaccine when given to refugees, following complaints about the product's "exorbitant" cost by medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres...The British drugmaker said...it would provide Synflorix, which protects children against pneumonia and other diseases, at a discounted price of $3.05 per dose to recognized civil society organizations...In Greece, MSF said it had been forced to pay 50 pounds ($65) a dose in local pharmacies in order to vaccinate thousands of refugee children fleeing from conflicts in Syria, Iraq and Afghanistan...GSK said its offer was made on the basis that others would not seek to reference the special price, which is intended solely to support refugee populations...Previously, the low price of $3.05 price has only been available to the world’s poorest countries.
- GlaxoSmithKline gives U.K. some post-Brexit love with $360M in plant investments (fiercepharma.com)
GlaxoSmithKline is not planning to exit the U.K. just because the U.K. is exiting the European Union. As if to emphasize its commitment, the drugmaker today said it intends to put a big chunk of money into expanding its manufacturing there...GSK will invest £275 million ($360.3 million)...(Specifically...£92 million at Barnard Castle to build an aseptic sterile manufacturing plant for biologics, £110 million to expand API production for HIV drugs and vaccines at the Scotland plant and £74 million at the Ware site for expansion of production of inhalers for its Ellipta respiratory drug)...The company said it expected the expansion to lead to some unknown number of new jobs and provide further work for the 2,750 people already working at the three sites...The company said there were plenty of reasons to feel good about new U.K. investments. It lauded the...benefits of the so-called patent box tax legislation from several years ago which taxes at a lower rate profits on new intellectual property created in the U.K.
- Novartis splits drugs business into two, pharma chief to leave (reuters.com)
Novartis is splitting its pharmaceuticals division into two business units, one focused on cancer and the second on other drugs, while switching out its current pharma head in the second high-profile management reshuffle this year...David Epstein, the American head of Novartis Pharmaceuticals...will leave the company to "explore new challenges from the U.S."...Epstein's re-location to the United States implies he is not in the running to replace Andrew Witty as chief executive of British drugmaker GlaxoSmithKline next year...Novartis' reorganization of its main drugs unit, which accounts for about two-thirds of its $49 billion in annual sales, shows the growing importance of oncology to the company...Cancer drugs tend to enjoy high profit margins and the therapy area is highly valued by investors at present, thanks to recent advances in fighting the disease and the premium prices commanded by cancer treatments...A split makes sense because oncology now has critical mass, following the GSK deal, and oncology is in many ways becoming a differentiated business from the rest of pharmaceuticals...