PharmaLeaders - Market Trends News

Docs more receptive to reps at industry confabs

Administrator — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 14:43:50 +0000

Here's a tip for sales reps barred from certain physicians' offices--catch them at a meeting instead. As the number of doctors who readily accept calls from pharma reps continues to shrink, sales folks are looking for work-arounds. And one that seems to work is chatting with docs at industry meetings, a new survey shows.

Even "no-see" docs would chat with reps at live events, a survey by educational-meeting provider Pri-Med reveals. Some 71 percent of them, in fact, actually have done so, the survey says. "It's about the right location and the right time," Sam Bishop, Pri-Med director of research, tells...

Allergan inks $600M off-label settlement

Administrator — Thu, 02 Sep 2010 12:49:04 +0000

Pharma marketing got another black eye yesterday when the Department of Justice announced a $600 million settlement with Allergan. The drugmaker agreed to plead guilty to a misdemeanor and pay a $375 million fine and $225 million in civil penalties, all for pushing Botox for off-label uses such as headache, pain and cerebral palsy treatment.

It's far from the biggest off-label marketing settlement we've seen; Pfizer owns that crown with its $2.3 billion deal to resolve charges that it mismarketed the now-withdrawn pain killer Bextra and several other drugs. Eli Lilly's Zyprexa settlement, at $1.41 billion, also outranks the Allergan...

FDA demands truth-telling plans from Baxter

Administrator — Wed, 01 Sep 2010 15:07:02 +0000

Don't pooh-pooh FDA's warnings on marketing violations. That's the message Baxter Healthcare got in a recent warning letter. As Pharmalot points out, the letter citing Baxter for mismarketing its lung drug Aralast not only demands that the company stop using the offending brochure, but requires Baxter, as a repeat offender, to come up with a plan to make sure its drug promos tell the truth.

"[S]ince we have cited you for similar violations in the recent past, we request a response in writing indicating what policies and procedures your firm intends to adopt to ensure your prescription drug promotion activities...

Will gene-testing be a blood-thinner battleground?

Administrator — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 14:30:33 +0000

Don't write off the latest blood-thinners just yet. Sure, the "gold standard" clotbuster Plavix may be going generic, making it much cheaper than recently approved--and upcoming--rivals. But new research could give the newer drugs a performance edge. At least Eli Lilly and AstraZeneca hopes it does.

Plavix works best for patients without particular genetic variations, to the point where FDA has advised doctors to either boost dosage or consider another drug in patients who don't respond to it. Genetic testing isn't mandated, but doctors have been debating whether to make it standard procedure for Plavix patients.

But new studies affirm that...

Paper: Roche mulls 'massive' worldwide job cuts

Administrator — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 13:35:00 +0000

Is Big Pharma due for another layoff? That's what the Swiss newspaper Sonntag is reporting, saying that Roche is putting the final touches on a global job-cutting plan. Sources tell the paper that a decision is expected at a scheduled management meeting this week. Roche itself tells Reuters that no layoff news will come that soon.

Sonntag's sources say that at a recent management meeting, Roche officials discussed "massive" job cuts across the company's pharma division. The cuts would hit sales and marketing, R&D, manufacturing and management. "This will not only concern a few hundred people but many more," one source tells the paper....