Which countries get the best - and worst - value healthcare?

By Mark Britnell*

As the world's attention turns to Davos, many people will remark on the Swiss knack for well-functioning services. It’s something I’ve often observed in their health system, which is one of the best I have ever encountered across the world.

You might expect that, considering how much the Swiss pay for healthcare - $9,276 per person, according to the World Bank, or around 11.5% of their total GDP. What fascinates me are those countries that seem to get the same results for a quarter or even less of that cost. For example, Hong Kong ($1,716 per person, 6% GDP), Israel ($2599 per person, 7.2% GDP) and Singapore ($2,507, 4.6% GDP) all of which, like Switzerland, enjoy life expectancies of between 82 and 83 years.

So why is it that some health systems are getting so much more for their money than others?

Although factors like diet and active lifestyles have an influence, it’s also clear that the huge differences in the way different healthcare systems are set up plays a major role too. Why else would we see similar variation in the outcomes of people who undergo certain treatments?

Having worked in sixty countries’ health systems over the past six years, I’ve gained first-hand experience of healthcare in many of these ‘outlier’ countries (both the highly efficient and the highly inefficient). While it’s impossible to say that any one country is best, a look beneath the statistics reveals some of the things most likely to produce more health for less cost.

Top pharma list of TV ad spenders for 2015

 Fierce PharmaMarketing | By Beth Snyder Bulik

Pfizer ($PFE) owned TV ad spending for 2015 among pharma brands. It took 5 spots on the top 10 list for the year, including Nos. 1 and 2, according to iSpot.tv estimated spending tallied for FiercePharmaMarketing. Seizure and pain drug Lyrica came in first with $116.2 million spent in 2015, while Pfizer's pneumococcal pneumonia vaccine Prevnar 13 came in at No. 2 with $101.7 million.

The three other Pfizer drugs on the list were anticoagulant Eliquis (No. 5), arthritis fighter Xeljanz (No. 6) and smoking cessation drug Chantix (No. 9), spending $96.7 million, $85.3 million, and $68.5 million respectively, according to iSpot.tv data.

Other Big Pharmas divvied up the remaining spots. Johnson & Johnson's ($JNJ) diabetes drug Invokana was No. 3 at $101.3 million, while AbbVie's ($ABBV) Humira was No. 4. One unfortunate note at No. 10 was Sanofi's ($SNY) epinephrine product Auvi-Q, which spent $54.2 million in TV advertising, only to have to pull all its injectors on worries that they might be delivering incorrect dosages.

Big Pharma: Declaration at the World Economic Forum in Davos

More than 80 leading international pharmaceutical, generics, diagnostics and biotechnology companies, as well as key industry bodies, have come together to call on governments and industry to work in parallel in taking comprehensive action against drug-resistant infections - so-called 'superbugs' - with a joint declaration launched today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The statement sets out for the first time how governments and industry need to work together to support sustained investment in the new products needed to beat the challenges of rising drug resistance.

The Declaration on Combating Antimicrobial Resistance - drafted and signed by 85 companies and nine industry associations across 18 countries - represents a major milestone in the global response to these challenges, with commercial drug and diagnostic developers for the first time agreeing on a common set of principles for global action to support antibiotic conservation and the development of new drugs, diagnostics, and vaccines. The industry is calling on governments around the world to now go beyond existing statements of intent and take concrete action, in collaboration with companies, to support investment in the development of antibiotics, diagnostics, vaccines, and other products vital for the prevention and treatment of drug-resistant infections.

Pharma reps ready for a change

Fierce Pharma Marketing | Emily Wasserman

Job satisfaction can be elusive, as pharma sales reps know all too well. A new report from MedReps.com, a job board for medical sales reps, shows that while pharma reps and their biotech rep peers are mostly content with their jobs, they're still hankering for a change.

MedReps surveyed more than 1,400 medical sales reps about the best places to work in the industry, tallied results for all the respondents and also broke down the numbers by field. While exactly half of pharma reps said that they are satisfied or somewhat satisfied in their jobs, more than three-quarters, or 76%, of reps said that they are somewhat likely or very likely to leave their jobs in the next year.

Biotech reps had similar qualms. More than half of reps said that they were satisfied or at least somewhat satisfied with their jobs. But a little more than three quarters of biotech reps also said that they would probably leave their job this year. Neither biotech nor pharma reps spelled out exactly why they wanted to leave their current position, though. Nor did they say where they would go once they left.

Διάκριση επιχειρηματικής αριστείας για τη Novartis Hellas

Μια ακόμη σημαντική διάκριση απέσπασε η Novartis Hellas ως επιβράβευση των οικονομικών της δεικτών και των σημαντικών της πρωτοβουλιών. Συγκεκριμένα και βάσει στοιχείων οικονομικού έτους 2014, η Novartis Hellas είναι η πρώτη σε πωλήσεις θυγατρική πολυεθνικής εταιρείας φαρμάκου στην Ελλάδα, και ασκώντας ενεργό ρόλο στον κλάδο της Υγείας, δημιουργεί πρόσθετη υπεραξία και στον τομέα του επιχειρείν. Η βράβευση πραγματοποιήθηκε από τον Οργανισμό Active Business Publishing, στην ετήσια συνάντηση Επιχειρηματικής Αριστείας «Salus Index 2015» στον τομέα Υγεία – Φάρμακο – Ομορφιά σε μια λαμπρή τελετή.

Winners: Novartis - Sanofi – AstraZeneca – Pfizer – J & J Losers: Merck - GlaxoSmithKline

Let's start with the good news.

In 2015, the FDA by its own account approved 45 new drugs, the largest one-year tally since 1996, which wrapped up with a record 53 regulatory OKs.

The new generational high, easily lapping last year's list of 41 approvals, marks a new peak following a surge by the R&D side of the business, which continues to recover from a lengthy period of marked weakness. The FDA has helped, proving more than willing to come through with faster approvals, particularly in oncology. And the science around drug development has improved markedly as our understanding of the genetic drivers of disease continues to make real progress.

But here's the catch: Higher approval numbers don't necessarily translate into market-moving opportunities. Throw another me-too drug into a pack of rivals and even the best sales force can't do much with it, particularly if cheap generics dominate a disease. And in the patent cliff environment that has persisted for several years now, it takes blockbuster gains to make a big difference for the Big Pharma companies that dominate the industry.

So who came out of 2015 a big winner?

The Top 10 Trends for Pharma Marketers in 2016

Πηγή: Intouch Team

Another end-of-the-year top-ten list? Another article about trends? Who cares?

Well … you should.

Trendspotting is much more than being trendy or sounding cool. Done right, it’s far more important. It’s about seeing what’s turning from hot topics into long-term movements and what’s influencing the evolution of our industry. It’s not only about finding new ideas, but seeing which ones are truly driving change.

And while there are many trends in marketing, tech, and healthcare, only a select group of key issues will realistically intersect to affect pharma marketers’ work in the year ahead.

We believe these are those issues — the macro-trends that will directly affect pharma in 2016. Here, we describe them, we dissect them, and we break them down into what they mean to you, the pharma marketer.

1. Mobile use drives the need for simplicity

Desktop computer Internet use remains steady, but mobile use continues to skyrocket and has officially surpassed the desktop. Mobile messaging is the killer app for devices, and mobile-messaging commerce may prove to be the killer app’s killer app as consumers pay for more and more using phones. As it moves from a coffee, to a yoga session, to a prescription co-pay, to a specialist visit, we’ll see mobile payments affecting healthcare more and more.

That same mobile activity carries a new paradigm of consumer expectation. We want what we want, whenever we want it, wherever we are — and it has to be easy. This also goes for everything from healthcare answers to, perhaps, healthcare itself.

Effective apps bring simplicity. Users are on the go and overwhelmed by choice and information, so concise function and flawless responsive design are mandatory. We want clever austerity — calm tech that patiently performs in the background.

Pharma isn’t quite there yet when it comes to delivering mobile commerce or even simple, useful apps that customers download and use again and again. Will 2016 be the year?

Experts predict that Pfizer will overtake Novartis in 2016

Pharmafile | Joel Levy

The year 2016 is set to see continued growth in research and development productivity, with significant new drug launches and a limited impact of patent expiries, according to a new report. The report claims blockbuster drug launches will continue to set the tone in 2016, with a dozen therapies seeking FDA approval next year. Roche is set to cement its position as one of the most efficient drug developers by having some of the biggest launches in 2016 – including the multiple sclerosis drug, ocrelizumab, developed by subsidiary Genentech.

Unlike past years, patent expiries will have minimal impact on some companies, thanks to the remaining difficulties of bringing biosimilars to the market in the US. AbbVie’s best-selling drug, Humira (adalimumab), will lose exclusivity in the US in 2016, but is not forecast to lose much of its $16 billion sales, and will remain the industry’s top seller. Despite this, investor confidence in the sector may be affected by increased scrutiny by policymakers around drug pricing and tax avoidance strategies, as seen with Pfizer’s recent takeover of Allergan and tax inversion plan.

Sanofi-Boehringer talks may flag more swaps ahead for 'merger lunacy' in 2016

Is the swap bound to be pharma's next M&A pattern? At the point when dealmakers tot up the upsides of Sanofi and Boehringer Ingelheim's benefit exchange talks- - and add them to the huge GlaxoSmithKline-Novartis swap-out prior this year- - they may catch up with deal game plans of their own, M&A specialists say.

In spite of the fact that advantage swaps are more confused than your normal money buyout, they can likewise help drugmakers hit more than one objective without a moment's delay. By exchanging its creature wellbeing endeavor, Merial, for Boehringer's customer wellbeing unit, Sanofi not just says farewell to a unit it had stamped for transfer, additionally picks up a main spot in the buyer business.

Pharma companies ‘among happiest places to work’

Five pharmaceutical companies have placed in a top 50 of the happiest companies in America listing, based on reviews by employees, with two leading drugmakers making the top three. 

 

Amgen, Novartis, Johnson & Johnson, MSD and Pfizer all ranked in online career community CareerBliss’ sixth annual 50 Happiest Companies in America awards list. The survey is compiled using thousands of independent company reviews submitted to the CareerBliss site by employees between 2014 and 2015. 

The survey takes into account eight weighted factors relating to a happy working environment, including: work-life balance, an employee’s relationship with his or her boss and colleagues, the office environment, job resources, compensation, opportunities for professional development, and company culture.