Top 10 drug brands by payments to doctors

FiercePharma | Tracy Stanton

The criticism was inevitable when the U.S. government rolled out its first batch of Sunshine Act data in October. Drugmakers and doctors had already been grousing about omitted entries and misleading info. We at FiercePharma had our own selfish complaint: The Open Payments database is monstrous--way too large for us to download and analyze with our paltry computing power.

Lucky for us--and for readers--there's ProPublica, which has taken on the Sunshine data as one of its personal missions. The online news organization has put the physician and hospital payment information into its own database, easily searched online. Thanks to them, we now know which companies are rolling the most money into physician-speakers and other doctor-directed promotions--and on behalf of which drugs.

The top 10 list is below. As you'll see, some of the drugs are newly approved. Some have new competitors. Some have new indications to tout. Others are carrying a load of expectations for their companies, justified or not.

The practice of paying doctors to speak on behalf of drugs has grown controversial in recent years, partly because of some high-profile scandals involving highly paid physicians. Buying lunch--even coffee--for doctors isn't critic-free either. Though doctors deny it, studies have shown that prescribing habits change because of speaking gigs and dinner presentations. Some drugmakers have ratcheted back their payments to doctors in response to the criticism; GlaxoSmithKline ($GSK) went so far as to back off of doctor-speakers altogether.

But as the numbers below show, speaking fees aren't going away. Neither is free lunch. Pharma companies want to get the word out about their meds, and this is a tried-and-true method of doing so.

The ProPublica numbers include payments to physicians and teaching hospitals, excluding royalties and research deals. The idea is to zero in on marketing-related payments. They cover the last 5 months of 2013, the most recent data available; the feds recently said they would roll out new Sunshine Act data once a year.

Here's the ProPublica database and top 10 list

1	Victoza
2	Eliquis
3	Brilinta
4	Invokana
5	Latuda
6	Xarelto
7	Humira
8	Tudorza
9	Daliresp
10	Abilify Maintena

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The drugs that will shape 2015

See the pharmaceutical products - both marketed and in the pipeline - that will dictate industry news flow over the next months.

Harvoni | Viekira Pak – hepatitis C (Gilead Sciences/AbbVie)

AbbVie upturned the apple cart in December when it agreed a significant discount with Express Scripts to secure formulary access for its newly approved Viekira Pak. The narrative here is no longer about hepatitis C – access to both drugs is improved and both products will generate billions of dollars in 2015 – but is one of treatment costs and the broader implications of a Harvoni/Viekira 'price war'. 

Alirocumab | evolocumab – dyslipidaemia (Sanofi & Regeneron/Amgen)

Both products – expected to be the first approved from the PCSK9 inhibitor class – should reach the market during the second half of 2015. The statin-intolerant population is large enough to support multi-billion dollar revenue forecasts for both products, argue analysts, although outcomes study data – expected in 2017 – are likely to prove critical in shaping uptake. One fly in the ointment; pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) are already targeting the PCSK9s for aggressive price negotiation following their successes in hepatitis C. 

Why Big Pharma Must Cure Its Bad Rap

Forbs | Arlene Weintraub

The 2015 Harris corporate reputation poll is out and the news for Big Pharma isn’t good, to say the least.  In the poll—which measures the “reputation quotient” of the most visible American companies among the general public—Big Pharma ranked ninth out of 14 industries and was right in line with insurance companies and airlines when it comes to respect, or lack thereof. Ouch.

It may seem surprising that the public has no more love for the manufacturers of important and sometimes life-saving therapies than it does for the companies that routinely leave passengers stranded for hours at the airport. But Big Pharma’s bad rap makes more sense when you consider that Harris’s reputation quotient incorporates 20 attributes that corporations must master, including trust, economic value, and community responsibility.

Actavis Announces Intention to Adopt "Allergan" Corporate Name

Actavis plc announced that it will adopt a new corporate name – Allergan – following the anticipated successful completion of the acquisition of Allergan, Inc. The Company said that it intends to use the Allergan name as its corporate name and for its global branded pharmaceutical portfolio, and will retain the Actavis name for select geographic regions and product portfolios. The change in corporate name would be subject to approval by Actavis' shareholders at its Annual General Meeting later this year.

"The pending combination of Actavis and Allergan will create a dynamic new breed of company – a leader in Growth Pharma. By adopting the Allergan name for the corporation we will ensure that our corporate identity reflects the dramatic evolution of our company within the pharmaceutical industry," said Brent Saunders, CEO and President of Actavis. "For more than 65 years, the Allergan name has represented innovation in branded pharmaceuticals, a commitment to bringing the best medicine to life and a strong partnership with physicians. The Actavis name has represented our global commitment to leadership in generic, branded generic and OTC pharmaceuticals and to increased access to more affordable prescription medicine for consumers around the world. Together, our combined company will be equally focused on developing new medicines that meet unmet medical needs in critical therapeutic categories, as well as increasing global access to high quality, affordable medicines.

The Corporate Reputation of Pharma in 2014

Source: PatientView

An new independent study by PatientView ‘The Corporate Reputation of Pharma in 2014 – the Patient Perspective’, sets out the the corporate reputation of pharma companies from a patient perspective, and details what has changed over the past four years. In summary:

• Findings based on a survey of 1,150 patient groups (from 58 countries and of differing specialties)
• Survey conducted mid-November 2014 to mid-January 2015
• Patient-group feedback on the corporate reputation of the entire pharma industry during 2014
• Patient-group feedback on the corporate reputation of 37 individual pharma companies in 2014
• Results for 2014 are compared with those of 2013, 2012, and 2011

The 37 pharma companies reviewed in the study are: AbbVie l Actavis l Allergan l Amgen l Astellas l AstraZeneca l Baxter International l Bayer l Biogen Idec l Boehringer-Ingelheim l Bristol-Myers Squibb l Celgene l Eisai l Eli Lilly (Lilly) l Gilead l GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) l Grũnenthal l Ipsen l Janssen l Lundbeck l Menarini l Merck & Co (USA) l Merck KgA (Germany) l Mylan l Novartis l Novo Nordisk l Otsuka l Pfizer l Roche l Sanofi l Servier l Shire l Stada Arzneimittel l Takeda l Teva l UCB l ViiV Healthcare

Results for individual pharma companies

The corporate reputation of individual pharma companies (as seen from a patient perspective) shows some significant changes between 2014 and 2013 (37 companies assessed in 2014; 33 companies in 2013).

Ο Μπαράκ Ομπάμα παίζει σε διαφημιστικό σποτ για την υγεία!!!

Τρεις ημέρες απέμειναν για να εγγραφούν οι Αμερικανοί στο «Obamacare», το διάσημο πρόγραμμα ιατροφαρμακευτικής περίθαλψης των ΗΠΑ, και ο εμπνευστής του, ο Μπαράκ Ομπάμα, κάνει ό,τι μπορεί για να πείσει τους συμπατριώτες του να γίνουν μέρος της μεταρρύθμισής του. Ο πρόεδρος των ΗΠΑ ανέβασε την Πέμπτη στον ιστότοπο BuzzFeed ένα απολαυστικό βιντεάκι με τίτλο «Things Everybody Does But Doesn’t Talk About».

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Οι 20 πιο κερδοφόρες φαρμακευτικές εταιρείες

Οι 130 μεγαλύτερες φαρμακευτικές επιχειρήσεις εμφάνισαν συνολικά κέρδη προ φόρων 276,4 εκατ. ευρώ για το 2013, αυξημένα κατά 4,83% μετά τη χρονιά ανάκαμψης που ήταν το 2012. Αξίζει να σημειωθεί, όσον αφορά την κερδοφορία, ότι μετά τη σημαντική επιβάρυνση από το PSI οι εταιρείες σταδιακά απομείωσαν τις προβλέψεις και έτσι δεν επιβαρύνεται η χρηματοοικονομική εικόνα. Για το 2013 από το σύνολο των 130 φαρμακευτικών εταιρειών, 106 παρουσίασαν κέρδη προ φόρων (81,54%), ενώ 24 (18,46%) εμφάνισαν ζημιές προ φόρων. Οι εταιρείες εργάστηκαν το 2013 με καθαρό περιθώριο κέρδους 5,22%, έναντι 4,78% το αντίστοιχο διάστημα του 2012.

Οι 20 πιο κερδοφόρες (βάσει κερδών προ φόρων) φαρμακευτικές εταιρείες το 2013:

 Τα στοιχεία προέρχονται από την έκδοση MED & HEALTH BUSINESS της Direction.

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Greece's Anti-Austerity Government Sets Out Pharma Plans

PharmExec | Julian Upton 

Pharma and healthcare are among the many areas being viewed with increasing attention inside and outside Greece, following the victory in the country’s elections of the radical left-wing, anti-austerity Syriza party (a victory it secured by forming a coalition with the right-wing Independent Greeks party).

Healthcare is very much on Syriza’s agenda: the party has described Greece’s compromised access-to-healthcare situation as a "humanitarian crisis”. The country’s new prime minister, Alexis Tsipras, was barely through the doors of the Presidential Mansion when he filed a decree to restructure the Greek Ministry of Health.

To improve access for the country’s poorest citizens, Tsipras wants to make significant reductions to co-payments paid by Greek patients for prescription medicines; he has tasked the Ministry of Health to once again issue social insurance funds. A restructuring of primary care is also on the cards.

Greece owes its creditors — the European Financial Stability Facility, the International Monetary Fund, and the European Central Bank — around €315 bn ($355 bn); Syriza’s promise to overhaul the country’s repayment plan is of course a major factor in propelling the party to victory. Syriza says its plans to boost public health spending can be achieved by clearing tax arrears, backlogs in social insurance contributions and combating tax fraud.

However, Greece has already been pushing its luck with non-payment of its pharma debts. As in-Pharma Technologist’s Gareth MacDonald points out, as of November last year, for example, the country owed Merck & Co. $71m for drugs supplied on credit, and accounts for part of the $907m Pfizer is still owed from crisis-hit Europe. Syriza’s rejection of the strictest austerity measures is not likely to see these pharma debts settled any time soon.

Syriza wants to bolster Greece's indigenous pharma industry with increased production of "high-quality generics". But IHS.com writes that "Greek producers have also been adversely affected by pricing regulation changes introduced last year, which resulted in drastic reductions in the prices of generics". And of Syriza's bid to increase the current level of pharmaceutical reimbursement (€2 bn) by €350m, IHS adds that while this increase is not particularly high, "considering the lengths to which the previous government was going to in order to keep reimbursement spending down, it is a massive change”. As such, "many questions remain" about how Syriza will deliver on its pharma and healthcare promises

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Pharma Predictions for 2015

Πηγή: PharmExec Staff   

An expert CPhI Worldwide panel has identified "the good, the bad, and the ugly" in its forecast for the pharmaceutical industry for 2015.

Among the "good" developments are the shift in FDA’s role from “investigator” of products to “enabler” of better quality processes and cultures within pharma manufacturing; breakthrough treatments for infectious diseases; and growth across NCEs and biopharmaceuticals.

The bad will continue to be defined by shortages of popular drugs in western markets due to marginal pressures and reduced stockpiling; fears for pharma not ‘walking the talk'; and the challenging year ahead for virtual drug developers as pharma exercises closer inspection of the robustness of CMC regulatory packages.

The "ugly truths" pointed out by the panel include predictions that outsourcing and related quality issues are unlikely to be reduced in the near future (big Pharma may even, in some cases, repatriate key elements of the drug development chain), and that the battle between IP protection and patient access is set to further heat up.

Details of the panelists and some of their individual predictions are further outlined below.