- Glaxo probing bribery accusations in Yemen (statnews.com)
GlaxoSmithKline is conducting an internal investigation into allegations that its subsidiary in Yemen hired government employees to influence purchasing decisions and boost sales of its medicines...more than a half-dozen Glaxo employees allegedly have also held various paid positions...at the government health ministry. The allegations are similar to those made two years ago concerning its operations in Iraq..."GSK has received allegations about staff conduct in Yemen and is investigating them thoroughly,"...The drug maker is currently being investigated by the US Department of Justice and the US Securities and Exchange Commission for potential violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act. The UK’s Serious Fraud Office is also investigating Glaxo for possible criminal violations of the Bribery Act...
- GlaxoSmithKline promises reduced drug patents to help world’s poor (reuters.com)
GlaxoSmithKline is to adopt a graduated approach to patenting its medicines, depending on the wealth of different countries, in order to make drugs more affordable in the developing world...Britain's biggest drugmaker said...it would not file patents in low-income states, leaving the way clear for generic companies to make cheap copies of its drugs without fear of being sued...For lower middle-income countries, GSK will seek patents but it aims to strike license deals that allow supplies of generic versions of its medicines for 10 years. These licenses are expected to earn GSK a "small" sales royalty...The company will continue to seek full patent protection in high- and upper middle-income countries, as well as members of the Group of 20 major economies...It is the latest move by the pharmaceuticals industry to address criticism that many new drugs are simply too expensive for....people in Africa, Asia and Latin America...
- Bayer’s Aleve and GSK’s Flonase top list of OTC TV ad spenders for 2015 (fiercepharmamarketing.com)
In a head-to-head prescription versus over-the-counter drug battle, prescription wins. At least when it comes to advertising...TV ad spending for the top 10 prescription drugs tallied $876.3 million, while over-the-counter spending among the top 10 brands totaled just $514 million for TV ads in 2015…Bayer's pain reliever Aleve topped the OTC list with almost $75 million in TV spending. Aleve also had the highest number of different TV spots as well with 23 creative executions running in 2015. GlaxoSmithKline's Flonase at No. 2 was no surprise after the drug went off patent and GSK went on an aggressive push to keep the brand thriving through the spring allergy season...The top 10 OTC list by estimated TV media spending by iSpot.tv for 2015 follows:
- Aleve (Bayer): $74.5 million
- Flonase (GlaxoSmithKline): $73.1 million
- Claritin (Merck): $58.4 million
- Advil (Pfizer): $58.3 million
- Nasacort (Sanofi): $50.3 million
- Alka-Seltzer (Bayer): $49 million
- Allegra (Sanofi): $43.8 million
- Tylenol (J&J): $37 million
- Nexium (Pfizer): $36.3 million
- Zyrtec (J&J): $33.1 million
- UK fines Glaxo $54 million over pay-to-delay deal with generic rivals (statnews.com)
In the latest government effort to penalize unfair competition among drug makers, the United Kingdom fined GlaxoSmithKline $54.5 million for illegally colluding with generic rivals to delay marketing lower-cost versions of the Paxil antidepressant...the UK Competitions and Market Authority found that between 2001 and 2004, Glaxo made payments totaling about $72 million to several generic companies. The deals were reached as part of a settlement to end patent litigation that was filed by Glaxo against the generic drug makers...Such settlements are known as pay-to-delay, since a brand-name drug company pays cash or transfers something else of value to a generic rival, which agrees to delay launching a copycat medicine. In 2001, Paxil was a blockbuster with sales in the UK exceeding $130 million...In this instance, the agreement deferred competition and potentially deprived the UK’s National Health Service of a lower-cost generic Paxil. UK authorities noted that when a generic version of Paxil eventually became available at the end of 2003, average prices fell by more than 70 percent in two years...Cracking down on these practices is essential to protect consumers, to encourage legitimate business activity that such practices stifle, and to stimulate innovation and growth...
- Brand matters: Interbrand’s best in pharma ranks Pfizer, Roche and Merck at top (fiercepharmamarketing.com)
Global brand consultant Interbrand, author of the annual Best Global Brands list, has turned its attention to pharma. InterbrandHealth looked specifically at the pharma category and sifted through 25 companies to get the "Best Pharma Brands," a baseline top 10 in the industry.
- Pfizer - ranked highest at almost $20 billion ($19.99 billion) in brand value
- Roche Group - at $15.47 billion
- Merck & Co. - at $13.88 billion
- Janssen at $13.87 billion
- Novartis at $13.5 billion
- Amgen at $13.46 billion
- Gilead Sciences at $13.36 billion
- Novo Nordisk at $10.21 billion
- AstraZeneca at $8.12 billion
- GlaxoSmithKline at $6.78 billion
Interbrand looked at three factors in determining the dollar figure for the brands: financial analysis, brand strength and role of brand. The third factor measures brand influence and how likely customers are to recommend it--in this case, how likely are doctors and healthcare providers to recommend or prescribe the brand's drugs.
- Illicit drugs? How Brexit risks legal limbo for medicines (reuters.com)
A British vote to leave the European Union would threaten some prescription medicines with regulatory limbo, posing a legal headache for drugmakers, according to lawyers and industry officials...The highly regulated pharmaceutical sector has more at stake than most from a so-called Brexit, prompting top manufacturers GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca, both of which oppose exit, to draw up detailed contingency plans...Currently, under EU rules, drugmakers launching a medicine get a single marketing approval that allows them to tap the entire European market of 500 million potential patients...In the event of a British exit, UK firms could no longer apply for or hold EU marketing authorizations, unless or until the UK negotiated to be part of the EEA. Licences would have to be transferred to businesses inside remaining member states..."The potential complexities around such issues as marketing authorization simply highlight the problems that could be faced by companies and patients alike in the event of exiting the EU,"...GlaxoSmithKline said leaving the EU would create uncertainty, add complexity and making some short-term disruption likely...
- Those PBM moves pharma loves to hate? They work, CVS says–so get used to them (fiercepharma.com)
Drugmakers may not be too keen on the formulary management techniques and exclusive deals pharmacy benefits managers have been using to combat rising drug prices. But new numbers from a PBM giant suggest they work--and that pharma better get used to them...CVS Health announced that its prescription drug trend--a metric for growth in prescription spending--had dropped to 5% in 2015, down from an all-time high of 11.8% in 2014. And with many of the usual drivers staying consistent over both periods--including brands and price inflation among generic and specialty drugs—the company is chalking up the drop as proof its tactics are doing their job...CVS' "proactive pharmacy management strategies were successful in mitigating the impact of rising drug costs in today's highly volatile prescription drug market,"..."[W]e work to help patients avoid unnecessarily expensive medications as part of our focus on making prescriptions affordable."..CVS and its main rival, Express Scripts, have both been actively pruning their preferred formularies over the past few years…Unsurprisingly, pharma hasn't taken too kindly to the moves, but some companies have been more accepting of the current climate than others...GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis, to name a couple, have been working to avoid payers' wrath...
- Drug makers paid fewer fines for bad behavior in recent years (statnews.com)
After a decade in which drug makers regularly paid huge fines for various fraudulent practices, there was a noticeable drop over the past two years, according to a new analysis by Public Citizen...Pharmaceutical companies paid approximately $2.8 billion to settle federal and state civil and criminal charges in 2014 and 2015, compared with $9.9 billion during 2012 and 2013. The most recent payments also amounted to the lowest two-year total since 2004 and 2005...Among the worst offenders in recent years were Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Novartis, and GlaxoSmithKline, although the report noted that nearly every large drug maker has paid fines to resolve some kind of infraction over the past two decades...A spokesman for the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America...We are disappointed at the report’s misleading conclusions...Among its many methodological flaws, the report aggregates all settlements involving the pharmaceutical industry, with little regard as to whether the companies actually broke the law. Civil settlements rarely resolve the question of guilt. Yet the report glosses over its own finding that 88 percent of the settlements reported were civil, not criminal...
- The Declining Revenues of GlaxoSmithKline’s Pharmaceutical Segment (finance.yahoo.com)
GlaxoSmithKline’s Pharmaceutical segment has declined substantially in 2015 due to the divestment of its oncology business to Novartis...The...segment reported revenues of $14.17 billion in 2015, compared to about $15.5 billion in 2014...revenues declined by 1% following lower sales of Seretide and Advair, partially offset by increased sales of HIV products Triumeq and Tivicay, and new pharmaceutical products...the...segment’s contribution to total revenues declined from 67.3% in 2014 to ~59.2%...GlaxoSmithKline’s Pharmaceuticals segment is classified into the following two franchises:
- HIV products are marketed under ViiV healthcare, a company with GSK as a major shareholder, while Pfizer and Shionogi are other shareholders. The company completed the acquisition of Bristol-Myers Squibb’s R&D HIV assets on February 22...HIV products reported growth of 54%...about $3.2 billion...partially offset by declining sales of Epzicom/Kivexa.
- Global pharmaceuticals - respiratory, cardiovascular, metabolic and urology, immuno-inflammation, and established products...key numbers:
- ...the respiratory franchise, the drugs Seretide and Advair are losing their market share to the generic competition...revenue decline of 7%
- ...the cardiovascular, metabolic, and urology franchise, the drugs Duodart and Jalyn have shown strong performances, while Avodart...is exposed to generic competition since October 2015...sales declined by 9%
- ...the immuno-inflammation franchise, Benlysta is driving growth...sales improved by ~24% while the franchise sales improved by 16%
- ...the established products franchise are losing their market share to generic competition...a revenue fall of 15%...due to lower sales across global markets.
- Other pharmaceuticals franchise include few key products...Augmentin, Relenza, Dermatology products, and rare disease products...revenues...declined by 4%...lower sales for Augmentin, dermatology, and rare disease products, partially offset by the strong performance of Relenza
- Novartis offices in South Korea raided over bribery concerns (statnews.com)
In the latest sign that global drug makers remain under scrutiny for their dealings with health care providers, South Korean authorities raided Novartis offices in search of evidence the company provided bribes to local doctors…Seoul Western District Prosecutors’ Office confiscated various documents, including account books, in order to determine whether rebates the drug maker offered physicians may have actually been bribes...The probe appears to be at an early stage, but is likely to be closely watched for signs that global drug makers continue to stumble in their practices in various foreign markets…