Apple plan to revolutionise mobile healthcare

Pharma Times | Kevin Grogan 

Apple has unveiled HealthKit, a platform to centralise data from different types of devices, like fitness trackers, heart rate and blood pressure monitors.

Launching iOS 8 for iPhones and iPads, which it describes as the biggest release since the launch of the App Store, Apple gave much prominence to HealthKit, which “gathers the information you choose from your various health apps and fitness devices, and provides you with a clear and current overview in one place”. The new operating system offers developers the ability for these apps “to communicate with each other”, the company said, and with  permission of the user, each app can use specific information from other apps “to provide a more comprehensive way to manage your health and fitness”.

How is UK pharma embracing e-learning?

 Pharmaceutical Field | Laura Scarlett

E-learning is gaining ground across the UK as a preferred method for training and ongoing performance support, but is it being embraced within the pharmaceutical sector? Information Transfer’s Laura Scarlett looks at trends within the industry and what it might mean for the delivery of training and information in the future.

Chances are, considering the intense regulation of the pharmaceutical industry, the precise nature of its products and the pace of research, you will regularly complete training and assessments on a variety of subjects.

Increasingly, in the UK and worldwide, organisations are using e-learning techniques and technologies to train and assess staff. By e-learning, I mean the use of any technology across the learning process, most obviously for delivery of content, but also encompassing tests and ongoing assessment, and management of learning content (so that it can, for instance, be easily updated). A recent survey by the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development found that 60% of organisations have increased their use of e-learning in the past two years and many expect this trend to continue.

“New technologies, increased connectivity, and growing computer literacy amongst the workforce have helped to drive the trend,” said Dr Rachel Meller, a partner at Information Transfer, one of the UK’s leading training and communication consultancies and specialists in pharmaceutical product training. Rachel and her team have been producing computer-based training and assessments for the pharmaceutical industry since the mid-1980s.

“Product and brand managers have a whole new set of tools at their disposal for supporting the product sales team, and we have certainly seen a steady rise in interest for e-learning training materials,” she added.

But, of course, access to new tools and an available new channel do not mean e-learning is necessarily appropriate. We asked a selection of learning and development managers and sales representatives about how they use e-learning, when it is (most) effective and what changes they anticipate within the industry.

Top 25 Psychiatric Medication Prescriptions for 2013

These are the top 25 psychiatric medications by number of U.S. prescriptions dispensed in 2013, according to IMS Health, a global information and technology services company. I’ve also provided their 2011, 2009, and 2005 rankings.

To put the percent changes below into perspective, the U.S. total population rose approximately 1.5 percent from 2011 to 2013. That suggests that anything above a 1.5 percent change was driven by other factors — more people seeking treatment, more awareness and acceptance of seeking treatment for a mental illness, more pharmaceutical advertising and marketing, or some other factor.

GSK invites private equity to bid for older drugs worth up to $12.6B

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Britain's biggest pharmaceuticals company, has approached potential buyers of brands including the ulcer remedy Zantac and Seroxat, a well-known antidepressant.

Sky News has learnt that GSK has invited a small number of private equity firms, including Advent International, Blackstone and KKR, to consider making offers for some or all of the roughly 50 medicines in its Established Products Portfolio.

Based on a frequently used valuation multiple of two times' annual sales, the assets could be worth as much as £7.5bn in total, according to one source.

It is unclear how interested the private equity firms are in pursuing any deal with GSK.

Top 10 best-selling cancer drugs of 2013

When it comes to selling big, cancer drugs have a lot going for them. Their targets--deadly diseases that in many cases can kill quickly--put them in high demand, even as they continue to redefine "premium pricing." Some newer drugs can be targeted at patient groups who have the best chances of benefiting, helping justify those high costs. And biologics, for now, don't face the same generic onslaughts that pummel pharma sales come patent expiration time.

That's not to say they don't face roadblocks. Plenty of cancer heavyweights have run into failed label expansions, governmental cost critics, patent woes and biosimilar threats. But even so, the top 10 managed to rake in worldwide sales between $1.7 billion and $7.8 billion each, according to EvaluatePharma data.

Lilly invests in early-stage UK life sciences fund

World News | Kevin Grogan 

Eli Lilly has made its first investment in a UK venture fund, managed by Epidarex Capital, which will focus on backing early-stage projects.

The US major is making “a significant capital commitment” to the fund which has raised over £47.5 million, while King’s College London has also invested in the final closing. Other participants include the universities of Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen, as well as the European Investment Fund, Scottish Enterprise and Strathclyde Pension Fund.

Elaine Sullivan, head of global external R&D at Lilly, said the firm’s “commitment to this pioneering Epidarex fund will increase collaboration across industry and academia to help speed the delivery of new treatments”. She added that the investment “reflects Lilly’s strong belief in the excellence of life science R&D in the UK” and will complement its own  research and existing academic partnerships.

Chris Mottershead, head of research and innovation, at King’s College London, said funds like the Epidarex one “involving major international partners recognise the untapped potential” at UK universities. These funds “provide the much-needed capital to carry translational research from the laboratory to the commercial market, and should attract more investor interest in the world-class research carried out across the UK”.

Epidarex said the fund’s portfolio companies will benefit from its investment team’s considerable experience as well as its international network, including the USA and Asia.

New sales models are trendy in Big Pharma

FiercePharma | By Tracy Staton 

Actually, they're de rigueur: With thousands fewer drug reps on the street these days, and many doctors turning reps away, companies have had to turn to new ways of promoting their products. Plus, all those pesky Department of Justice settlements make the old hard sell seem sketchy.

What's Eli Lilly's version? According to an interview with Alex Azar, president of the Indianapolis-based company's U.S. business, it's problem-solving.

As InsuranceNewsNet reports, Lilly  sends its 2,000-plus U.S. reps into doctors' offices to "broker" solutions to patients' problems.

Οι ιδιωτικές κλινικές "φέρνουν" στην Αθήνα τον επίτροπο Ταγιάνι για τις ληξιπρόθεσμες οφειλές

Reporter.gr | Δέσποινα Καραγιαννοπούλου

Στην Αθήνα αναμένεται στις 27 Ιουνίου ο Ευρωπαίος Επίτροπος Αντόνιο Ταγιάνι, προκειμένου να εξετάσει την καταγγελία που δέχθηκε εγγράφως από την Πανελλήνια Ένωση Ιδιωτικών Κλινικών, αναφορικά με τις ληξιπρόθεσμες οφειλές προς τα μέλη της. Στην επιστολή της Ένωσης, που ήδη έχει σταλεί στον Υπουργό Υγείας, κ. Α. Γεωργιάδη, αλλά και στον πρόεδρο του ΕΟΠΥΥ, κ. Δ. Κοντό, γίνεται εκτενή αναφορά στις ληξιπρόθεσμες οφειλές των ασφαλιστικών ταμείων προς τις ιδιωτικές κλινικές.

Επιβεβαιώνοντας τα παραπάνω, ο πρόεδρος της Πανελλήνιας Ενωσης Ιδιωτικών Κλινικών, κ. Γ. Σαραφιανός, τόνισε στο "R" ότι πρέπει "εδώ και τώρα να λυθεί η θηλιά στο λαιμό των ιδιωτικών κλινικών που λέγεται ληξιπρόθεσμες οφειλές". Σύμφωνα με τον ίδιο οι οφειλές αυτές ξεκινούν από το 2007 και φθάνουν μέχρι σήμερα.

Pharma MBAs — From Mini Courses to the Full Monty

Pharmaceutical Executive | John Ansell

Over the past decade there has been a marked increase in the variety of specialist pharma MBA courses on offer. These courses last from one week in the case of most mini MBAs, up to a year’s full-time study or equivalent. And so the depth of learning provided by these different types of course varies enormously. Both the public and private sector offer courses — sometimes they are provided by alliances of both.

Who takes the courses?

As a trainer and tutor who has been involved with five different MBA courses, I see a tremendous variety in the background of participants.

All of my courses have been for organizers based in Europe; I see participants from right across the continent but also from other regions — particularly the Middle East. Course participants are mostly in middle or senior management positions. Most are working in the pharmaceutical industry or for companies serving the industry but who lack commercial background. Most commonly participants have an R&D background.

Three launches this year just the beginning of Teva turnaround, CEO says

FiercePharma | By Carly Helfand 

Three new drug launches in 2014 won't save Teva's  sales if generics attack Copaxone later this week. But they certainly will help.

Those launches are just what the Israeli company has on the way, CEO Erez Vigodman told a conference Friday, according to Reuters. And that trio--comprising migraine patch Zecuity, Symbicort generic DuoResp Spiromax, and Adasuve, an inhalation powder to treat agitation in schizophrenia patients--will ultimately combine for peak sales of $1 billion, estimates say.

Of course, that's just one piece of the Israeli drugmaker's plan to get back on track after patent woes, restructuring plans, labor protests, management changes and shareholder unrest rocked the company in the past several months. Vigodman said earlier this month that Teva wants to refocus on its generics business and plunge into the biosimilars race. M&A isn't out of the question, either, and rumors listed Teva as a suitor for India's Cipla just a couple weeks ago.