Αντιδράσεις των Φαρμακευτικών Εταιριών στα Νέα μέτρα Κυβέρνησης – Θεσμών για τα Φάρμακα

Τα νέα μέτρα για το φάρμακο έχουν προκαλέσει την έντονη αντίδραση της φαρμακοβιομηχανίας. Ο Σύνδεσμος Φαρμακευτικών Επιχειρήσεων Ελλάδος (ΣΦΕΕ) δηλώνει την έντονη δυσαρέσκειά του κάνοντας λόγο για οριζόντια μέτρα. Σύμφωνα με τον ΣΦΕΕ, «τα μέτρα αυτά δεν αποτελούν διαρθρωτικές αλλαγές, αλλά καθαρά βαριά φοροεισπρακτικά μέτρα, τα οποία δεν εξασφαλίζουν τη μείωση του clawback κατά 30%, που είναι και μνημονιακή υποχρέωση. Μάλιστα τα μέτρα αυτά θέτουν περιορισμούς στην είσοδο των νέων καινοτόμων φαρμάκων ή και την καθιστούν απαγορευτική, γεγονός που θα έχει άμεσες και δυσμενέστατες επιπτώσεις στους Έλληνες ασθενείς». Επιπλέον, αναφέρει ο Σύνδεσμος, πλήττουν την υγιή επιχειρηματικότητα, χωρίς όμως να εξασφαλίζουν ούτε στέρεα δημοσιονομικά οφέλη ούτε, το κυριότερο, καλύτερες υπηρεσίες υγείας στους ασθενείς. Εξαντλούν, τέλος, τη βιωσιμότητα των φαρμακευτικών εταιρειών, απειλώντας τις 86.000 θέσεις εργασίας που στηρίζει άμεσα και έμμεσα ο Κλάδος του Φαρμάκου και δημιουργούν συνθήκες αποεπένδυσης. 

Τι περιλαμβάνουν τα νέα μέτρα

Η συμφωνία μεταξύ κυβέρνησης και Θεσμών περιλαμβάνει νέα μέτρα με στόχο τη συγκράτηση της φαρμακευτικής δαπάνης και «όχημα» την αύξηση της χρήσης των γενοσήμων, τις μειώσεις τιμών στα αποζημιούμενα φάρμακα, αλλά και την απελευθέρωση των μη συνταγογραφούμενων φαρμάκων. 

Restricting pharmaceutical reps’ marketing tactics changes physician prescribing behavior

New research shows that limiting how pharmaceutical sales representatives can market their products to physicians changes their drug prescribing behaviors.
A team, led by the University of California, Los Angeles' Ian Larkin and Carnegie Mellon University's George Loewenstein, examined restrictions 19 academic medical centers (AMCs) in five U.S. states placed on pharmaceutical representatives' visits to doctors' offices. Published in the May 2 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, the results reveal that the restrictions caused physicians to switch from prescribing drugs that were more expensive and patent-protected to generic, significantly cheaper drugs.
Pharmaceutical sales representative visits to doctors, known as "detailing," is the most prominent form of pharmaceutical company marketing. Detailing often involves small gifts for physicians and their staff, such as meals. Pharmaceutical companies incur far greater expenditures on detailing visits than they do on direct-to-consumer marketing, or even on research and development of new drugs. Despite the prevalence of detailing and the numerous programs to regulate detailing, little was known about how practice-level detailing restrictions affect physician prescribing, until now.

Έρευνα με μεγάλο ενδιαφέρον για τους εργαζόμενους των φαρμακευτικών εταιριών.

Η συμμετοχή σας θα ενισχύσει σημαντικά την αξιοπιστία των αποτελεσμάτων. 

Για να μάθετε περισσότερα, πατήστε στην παρακάτω εικόνα.

Κοινοποιήστε το και στους φίλους σας. 

It is not a great time to be a pharmaceutical rep

By Martha Rosenberg*

More than a decade ago, the job of the pharmaceutical rep was enviable. Direct-to-consumer advertising pre-sold many drugs so doctors already knew about them. Medical offices welcomed the reps who were usually physically attractive and brought lunch. In fact, reps sometimes had their own reception rooms in medical offices.

By 2011 thanks to drug safety scandals and new methods of marketing, the bloom had fallen off the pharma reps’ roses. The number of prescribers willing to see most reps fell almost 20 percent, the number refusing to see all reps increased by half, and eight million sales calls “could not be completed” at all, reported ZS Associates.

The top 10 drug launches of 2017

After an unusually slow year for new drug approvals—the FDA greenlighted just 22 meds in 2016—it remains to be seen whether drugmakers can do much better in 2017. One thing’s for sure, though: No matter what total the industry tallies up this year, the crop will bring some would-be blockbusters and market disrupters.

At the top of the list, according to EP Vantage’s 2017 preview, which ranks the year’s rollouts by 2022 sales, is Ocrevus (ocrelizumab), the Roche multiple sclerosis drug that’s promising to shake things up in more ways than one. In clinical trials, the candidate bested Merck KGaA's standard therapy Rebif, and it’s also gone where no other MS drug has gone before, posting positive data in patients with the primary progressive form of the disease. Those data will put the heat on other meds—and invite payers to pile pressure onto the segment, too.

Pharma's most-valuable brands 2017

U.S. pharma brands jumped in value almost across the board in Brand Finance's annual look at the nation’s most valuable. The lone exception? Valeant Pharmaceuticals
While Johnson & Johnson, Pfizer, Merck & Co., AbbVie, Eli Lilly and Bristol-Myers Squibb all gained brand value—$500 million, on average—Valeant dropped almost $1 billion. The embattled pharma went from $2.67 billion last year to just $1.48 billion in this year’s tally.
That's quite a turnabout: Just one year prior, Valeant had soared to join Pfizer at the top of the pharma chart, based at the time on its strategy of buying in drug development, with takeovers of Salix, Mercury Holdings and Sprout Pharmaceutical in 2015.
Brand value is different from reputation, which is why pharma could gain industrywide amid the drug-pricing controversy that raged almost all the way through 2016.
Brand Finance also tallies global brand value, and its worldwide pharma report, the top 10 global pharma brands, saw value increase unilaterally. Roche led global growth with a 56% increase in value at No. 1 and a $6.09 billion value.

What Are The Top-Selling Prescription Medications In History?

You may or may not be surprised to learn that Lipitor, a prescription medication for lowering bad cholesterol and manufactured by drug giant Pfizer, is the top-selling prescription drug of all time according to recent reports, which indicate the medication has brought in $148.7 billion in sales over the drug’s 21 years since it was approved in 1996.

What other prescription medications are the top sellers? Humira, Seretide, Remicade, Plavix, Enbrel, Rituxan, Herceptin, Avastin, and Nexium round out the top 10.

Humira, a drug from AbbVie Inc., is used for the treatment of a variety of conditions from arthritis and ulcerative colitis to plaque psoriasis and Crohn’s disease.

Seretide, also known as Advair, is a top-selling asthma inhaler drug from GlaxoSmithKline; a bronchodilator also used to treat COPD.

Remicade, manufactured by Janssen Biotech (formerly Centocor Ortho Biotech) is similar to Humira in that the drug is used to treat Crohn’s disease, plaque psoriasis, ulcerative colitis, and rheumatoid and psoriatic arthritis.

Plavix is a blood thinner brought to the market by Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi SA, and is designed for patients with coronary artery disease and may help prevent heart attack, stroke, and other heart conditions.

Most people are familiar with most of these drugs, which have brought in billions in sales since approval. For instance, Humira was approved in 2003 and through 2016 had $95.6 billion in sales. Plavix was introduced into the pharmaceutical market in 1997, and has brought in sales of $82.3 billion.

While Lipitor is still a huge seller for Pfizer, the majority of sales are in overseas markets and China since the expiration of its patent in November of 2011.

Many believe that while our new President has vowed to bring down prescription drug prices, it won’t be an easy task, or one that’s tackled during his time in office, considering other obstacles such as trade and tax reform, changes to healthcare, and more.

Top 15 pharma companies by 2016 revenue

Source: FiercePharma

Still, it does feel as if something's happening here. The building tensions over pricing, and a review of the top 15 companies by 2016 revenues, suggests the relentless march forward of drug prices and profits may have slowed. Sales for the top 15 companies were up about 4% for the year combined, certainly not a figure that shows great strides. Four companies in the top 15 saw their revenues fall for the year, while others reported results that would be classified as flat.

The companies prominent in the diabetes field have been under payer pressure for several years now, and sales at Sanofi and Novo Nordisk illustrate that, even if Eli Lilly managed to see some significant gains in diabetes meds in the fourth quarter.

5 Types of Training Every Pharmaceutical Sales Representative Needs

It is well-known that selling is a dynamic profession, and you need to upgrade your knowledge about your products and services constantly to be a successful salesman. But, the task of salesmen in the pharmaceutical sector is tougher when compared to their counterparts in other industries. Here, the prospect (I mean the doctor) has more knowledge about medicines and diseases than the salesman. How does the pharmaceutical representative make an impact on the doctor and how does he help introduce his company’s medicines? The answer – he needs to be as knowledgeable as the doctor himself. When sales representatives join pharmaceutical companies, they undergo intensive one-month pharmaceutical sales classroom training sessions, where they are trained aggressively by doctors and medical sales managers. This is usually a full time certification course. Once this sales training is complete, they go out to the market and work in the field.

The future of pharma's salesforce

PharmaTimes magazine | Katrina Megget*

The future of pharma's salesforce has been a hotly debated topic for years. Now we wave goodbye to one-size-fits-all and embrace a field force fusion

It has been a turbulent few years for pharma's salesforce as the industry has tried to find its feet amid a shifting healthcare landscape. For all intents and purposes, the sales rep should be dead, yet the role remains, and largely intact – albeit head count has reduced and other roles and job titles have sprung up. Indeed, the salesforce of the future is beginning to take shape. And there's even a place for the sales rep, experts say. That's because the new salesforce will be a blend of roles and capabilities.

"The salesforce is changing," says Alan Kidd, business development manager at CHASE. "It's becoming increasingly a mix – an educational and promotional mix, which includes digital and e-detailing, other roles and even health outcomes consultants."

This is echoed by Ryan Wooller, business development director at Star. He says the salesforce of the future will be made up of different role types, deployed in different geographies with messages tailored to reflect the requirements of the local health economies. "The days of the one-size-fits-all national sales team are numbered," he states.