Glaxo to Bring Doctors In-House as Educational Speakers

 Bloomberg | Makiko Kitamura

GlaxoSmithKline Plc (GSK) plans to hire doctors to educate their peers about its drugs instead of paying external speakers, a further change to its marketing practices following a record fraud settlement in the U.S.

The drugmaker is also investing in improving its multichannel marketing strategy through media such as online streaming of educational content, Deirdre Connelly, head of Glaxo’s U.S. pharmaceuticals business, said in an interview in Philadelphia. The changes come at a time when London-based Glaxo is introducing products recently approved to treat skin cancer, HIV and respiratory diseases.

Glaxo has been reforming marketing practices to improve its reputation. In 2012, the company agreed to pay $3 billion to settle allegations that it illegally promoted its Paxil and Wellbutrin anti-depressants and failed to report safety data on the Avandia diabetes drug. Hiring doctors and medical experts to speak as in-house representatives of Glaxo will provide more transparency, Connelly said.

“We’ll continue to disseminate this very important information on drug benefits and risks, but we’re just not going to do that by hiring external speakers,” she said. “We want to ensure that no one even perceives us to be doing anything wrong.”

The Pharmaceutical Sales Rep Lives to Fight Another Day

 The Wall Street Journal | Ed Silverman

The pharmaceutical industry has shed thousands of sales representatives over the past decade, but drug makers continue to invest in hiring and training, albeit at rates that are only slightly higher than what was seen several years ago. The upshot is that the demise of these marketing stalwarts may have been exaggerated.

Among U.S. drug makers, the annual cost per primary care rep ranges from $125,000 to $200,000, although most companies allocate roughly $160,000, which is up from $150,000 back in 2005. The modest increase reflects less travel, fewer extravagant meetings and lower costs for laptops and tablets, according to a recent report by Cutting Edge Information, a market research firm.

The same factors helped temper cost for reps who call on specialist physicians and hospitals, although the averages were, not surprisingly, higher than for primary care reps. The average cost for a specialty rep was $228,000, while the average annual cost for hospital reps was $243,000, according to the report, which queried 61 drug and seven device makers late last year.

What Do Pharma's "High Performers" Have in Common?

Anne O’Riordan *

A new study of high-performing pharma companies reveals science-based innovation strategies and patient-outcome-based commercial models are now the key drivers of growth. 

A select group of high performing pharma companies are significantly breaking away from the pack in terms of high performance in profitability, growth, future value, consistency and longevity, according to recent biopharmaceutical high performance business research. These high performing pharma companies are able to achieve this by focusing on innovation-driven growth strategies that are substantiated by patient- outcome-focused commercial models.

The research looked at the long-term performance of pure play pharma companies — those that have more than 75 per cent of their revenue derived from pharma products.

In contrast to similar research published last year, the new study found that while good product pipeline and penetration in emerging markets is still driving market growth, investor sentiment has shifted and science-based innovation strategies and patient-outcome-based commercial models are now the key drivers of growth.