Amazon for medicines?

Pharmaphorum | Paul Stuart-Kregor

Pharma should stop saying the Amazon model is 'not for us', argues Paul Stuart-Kregor, but should instead consider where an integrated digital channel/supply channel model could bring benefits to healthcare systems, patients and the industry alike.

Given its ubiquity on the web, it is hard to believe that Amazon doesn't celebrate its 20th birthday until next year. And yet when it first went online in 1995, many gave the concept of an online retailer little chance of success; certainly few envisaged the company becoming the behemoth it is today.

At first glance, Amazon is simply a mail-order company, taking its orders online, but fulfilling them much as many mail-order retailers had done before (by post; it will probably be the Amazon model which is the saviour of our universal postal service, but that is another story).

Of course, although it was, and still is, highly innovative, Amazon is about dealing direct with the consumer. This is why the pharmaceutical industry, whilst it loves to look at innovations in other sectors, has tended to think that the Amazon model is not applicable.

Pharma optimistic about future, worried about reputation

Pharma Times | Kevin Grogan

A major global survey, “testing the health of the pharmaceutical industry”, has revealed that a sizeable majority of executives polled believe the sector is in good shape but are concerned its reputation.

Some 971 executives have responded to a survey from eyeforpharma which has compiled an ‘industry healthcheck’. It shows that 22% think the industry’s reputation is not improving amongst the general public, though 46% think they know what the industry needs to do to improve it. However, Pierre Morgon, chief marketing officer at Cegedim, is not so sure, claiming that “the industry keeps looking at some of its members misbehaving, without taking any action”, with the exception of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry.

TEVA will close half of its manufacturing facilities over the next 5 years

Teva CFO Eyal Desheh says the generic giant was built in bits and pieces, picking up a bunch of manufacturing plants in the process that it no longer needs. So the company will close half of its manufacturing facilities over the next 5 years as part of its plan to get more focused and more efficient.

"The company was created by a series of mergers and acquisitions. We managed to accumulate 75 manufacturing facilities.We can reduce this number to half of what we have today, and the remaining facilities will be efficient, productive and of course of the highest quality, which is very important," Desheh said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Healthcare Conference, according to a transcript of his remarks from SeekingAlpha.

With Teva's workhorse product, the multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone, going off patent, the company has been scrambling to reduce expenses and to find new revenue. The drug, which lost patent protection last month, makes up half of the drugmaker's revenue. So far, a planned generic by Mylan has yet to hit the market but it is just a matter of time.

The company for a couple of years has been working on ways to cut costs and build revenue. After a court ruling last year put Copaxone in jeopardy a year earlier than expected, Jeremy Levin laid out an aggressive plan to about 5,000 employees--10% of its workforce--by the end of this year and bank $2 billion in savings before the end of 2017.

Erez Vigodman was named CEO in January after Levin left because of board disagreements. He has talked a lot about plans to boost the top line, but has been short on details about the cost-cutting, much of which Levin said would come from slimming the manufacturing network. Vigodman gave some indication in a May conference call with analysts about how the plan was developing. He said the company had identified 11 plants for closure and was evaluating 16 others, although specific targets have never been identified. Now Desheh is suggesting the number could be 38 or so plants.

The drugmaker is doing other things to make its way through this patent cliff dive. It has been convincing doctors to move patients to a new longer-acting version of Copaxone, a move analysts say will take some of the sting out. "Generics will be approved at some point, but it's no longer going to be devastating," John Park, co-manager of Jackson Park Capital's Oakseed Opportunity Fund, told Bloomberg last month.

Vigodman also told a conference in May that a trio of drugs is launching that will also offset some of the loss. Estimates have put about $1 billion in peak sales to the three drugs, migraine patch Zecuity, Symbicort generic DuoResp Spiromax, and Adasuve, an inhalation powder to treat agitation in schizophrenia patients. The CEO has also said it is looking to invest in some smaller acquisitions and to to build its biosimilars program.

6,000 new jobs in Novo Nordisk

 

Up to 2022, Novo Nordisk expects to hire 6,000 new employees in Denmark, half of whom will work within research and development. The new jobs will have the derived effect of boosting employment by more than 15,000 jobs nationally.

This is revealed by a new analysis to be presented by Novo Nordisk today at the ‘Invitation to growth – a road to job creation’ conference. The analysis homes in on the value created in the interaction between growth businesses and public-sector research and education, as well as the challenges that must be solved so that research-based businesses can continue to grow in Denmark.

"With the expectation of creating 6,000 new jobs in Denmark over the coming years, it will be crucial for Novo Nordisk that Denmark educates world-class graduates but also focuses far more intently on attracting international talent," says Executive Vice President and Chief Science Officer Mads Krogsgaard Thomsen.

The analysis presents new forecasts for the future availability of university graduates and PhDs and questions whether Denmark is investing sufficiently in the frameworks that are necessary for providing strong research-based degree programmes.

The conference is being hosted today by Novo Nordisk from 12.30 to 16.30 at the company’s headquarters in Bagsværd. The debaters will include Danish Minister for Higher Education and Science Sofie Carsten Nielsen; Chair of the Government’s Expert Committee on Quality in Higher Education Jørgen Søndergaard; Rector of the University of Copenhagen Ralf Hemmingsen; and the political spokespersons for the Liberal Party of Denmark and the Danish Social Democrats.

Sanofi Targets Counterfeit Viagra Market With OTC Cialis

Men with erectile dysfunction may be able to avoid the awkwardness of a doctor’s visit by buying the drug Cialis without a prescription, under a proposal announced Wednesday by the drug’s maker, Eli Lilly, and the French pharmaceutical company Sanofi.

Under the plan, Sanofi is buying the rights to seek approval to sell Cialis over the counter in the United States, Europe, Canada and Australia after certain patents expire. Cialis is to lose its patent protection in the United States and Europe in 2017, after which sales are expected to drop sharply as cheaper generic alternatives arrive on the market.

If approved for over-the-counter use, Cialis could gain an advantage over prescription competitors like Viagra, sold by Pfizer. But it is not clear whether the Food and Drug Administration or other regulatory bodies overseas would approve such a move: In 2008, Pfizer abandoned an effort to make Viagra available without a prescription after the European Medicines Agency raised concerns.

“Millions of men worldwide trust Cialis to treat E.D.,” or erectile dysfunction, said David A. Ricks, president of Lilly Bio-Medicines, the unit of Lilly that oversees Cialis. “We are pleased to work with Sanofi to pursue a path that could allow more men who suffer from E.D. to obtain convenient access to a safe and reliable product without a prescription.”

Pharma Should be at Heart of European Economic Reform, says EFPIA

The European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA)  launched what it called “a landmark paper” outlining steps towards an integrated strategy for the life sciences sector in Europe.

“Health & Growth — Working together for a healthy Europe” calls for a new generation of partnerships to address the EU’s growing health and competitiveness challenges. The paper lays out a case for placing the pharmaceutical industry at the heart of European economic reform and growth.

EFPIA President, Christopher Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, said : “We need to better understand the environmental and demographic factors driving healthcare spending… If we want sustainable systems, we can’t revamp just one area; we need to address the system as a whole.”

Richard Bergström, Director General EFPIA, added: “We must start thinking outside the box and ensure our industry is connected not just on debates about wellbeing, but also about jobs, growth and economic stability. A new European life sciences strategy will be vital to achieving the objectives of Europe 2020 and beyond.”

EFPIA is calling for greater political collaboration to agree a comprehensive strategy for life sciences, based on three “separate but interdependent pillars”:

1. Improvement of health outcomes and removal of inequalities to better patient benefits;
2. Support for sustainable and predictable healthcare systems to speed access to medicines;
3. The building of a thriving innovative life sciences sector to promote European competitiveness.

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.