Sales of Lipitor dropped more than £50 million in England last year, as the blockbuster cholesterol drug fell victim to aggressive cost cutting by Primary Care Trusts (PCTs).
The decline in Lipitor is especially significant because it is the surest sign yet that PCTs have seized control of the primary care prescribing budget, and are now dictating the market to GPs and pharmaceutical companies.
Sales of Lipitor (atorvastatin) from GP prescribing fell £53 million in 2007 compared to the previous year, representing a very substantial 15% decline for the UK's biggest selling drug.
More
Saturday, May 10, 2008
Pfizer - Lipitor: going down
Friday, May 09, 2008
A thought provoking psychiatrist
http://lakecocytus.blogspot.com/
I particularly like the post about NICE.
"New Rules" from UK's Pharma police
More detailed requirements for pharmaceutical companies’ relationships with patient groups and health professionals will be included in the revised ABPI Code of Practice which comes into effect on July 1.Many of the changes relate to even greater transparency, and include:
• Companies will have to make publicly available a short description of their support for patient organisations for both financial and significant indirect support.
• Sponsorship declarations must accurately reflect the nature of the company’s involvement.
• It will be a breach of the code to fail to disclose details on ongoing clinical trials.
• Companies will need to have a contract for health professionals and others employed as consultants, and are strongly encouraged to require consultants to declare this as an interest.
• Companies are also encouraged to make publicly available information about donations and grants to institutions etc that support healthcare and research.
As well as changes based on the two codes of the European Federation of Pharmaceutical Industries and Associations (EFPIA), others include heightening awareness of the need for health professionals to report adverse drug reactions (ADRs).
“The ABPI Code of Practice is continually evolving to ensure that the pharmaceutical industry and its stakeholders can have maximum confidence in the standards set for ethical and responsible behaviour of companies and staff,” said Chris Brinsmead, President of the ABPI. “In this, the 50th year of the ABPI Code of Practice, the ABPI has not only agreed to revisions to implement the new requirements of the EFPIA code – as we are obliged to do – but also made further amendments to reflect experience, comments and suggestions received since the introduction of the 2006 code.”
Other changes include:
• More guidance about meetings and hospitality.
• Additional limitations over the supply of samples.
• The publication of interim case reports when publication of the final report is delayed because the company’s procedures require audit.
• Advertisements for the outcome of certain cases will now appear in the nursing media as well as in medical and pharmaceutical journals.
The changes have been approved by the ABPI following consultation, and will come into effect on July 1 with a transition period. Comments, proposals and suggestions on the code are always welcomed and, where relevant, will be considered for possible inclusion.
A summary of the changes can be viewed at http://www.pmcpa.org.uk
Thursday, May 08, 2008
STEPS - not the group, fatty!
The UK National Prescribing Centre (NPC) has published a MeReC Bulletin (PDF) discussing the drug management of obesity.
The bulletin describes the increasing incidence of obesity and the impact that this has on health. The article also discusses non-pharmacological and pharmacological methods for loosing weight with a more detailed examination of when drugs are appropriate, how effective they are likely to be and the side effects and safety concerns associated with use.
The article concludes that, “it is worth encouraging people to eat a little less and move a little more“. It is also noted that all anti-obesity drugs are associated with modest weight loss of 3 to 5kg and that prescribing should consider the overall benefit in relation to safety warnings, national guidance and licensed product indications.
Finally, the bulletin provides a table of the three currently available anti-obesity drugs with detail given for Safety, Tolerability, Efficacy, Price and Simplicity of use (STEPS) that will aid clinicians in making an informed decision about which drug is most appropriate to use.
Hat tip: Matt
Remote Area Medical in deepest Tennessee
Forty-seven million Americans have no health insurance. Millions more are underinsured, unable to pay their deductibles or get access to dental care. Here's the story of Remote Area Medical, a charity founded by Stan Brock that was originally designed to bring doctors and medicine into the jungles of the Amazon. But these days RAM finds itself doing much of its business in the U.S. Scott Pelley spent a weekend in Knoxville, Tennessee taking a look at RAM in action.
Watch the video.
Big Pharma's Big Problem - an FT redux
Some of the world's biggest drugs companies - including Britain's GlaxoSmithKline and AstraZeneca - are facing their worst crisis in decades, as their future revenues come under threat from shrinking drug pipelines, increased competition from generic rivals and a slew of patent expiries.
"For the first time in history, the industry will have negative growth in 2011," says Alexis de Rosnay, global co-head of healthcare at Lehman Brothers. This is a timebomb the sector has known about for some time. Its last big answer, up to about three or four years ago, was to pursue large-scale mergers and acquisitions.
AstraZeneca was created in a £52bn deal in 1999. GSK resulted from a £120bn deal in 2001. Pfizer launched a $53bn takeover of Pharmacia in 2003 and Sanofi-Aventis was formed from a $64bn merger in 2004.
More at the FT
Amgen's Sharer shares his regrets with shareholders
The beleaguered chief executive of biotech giant Amgen Inc. confronted an often testy group of shareholders Wednesday, his first annual meeting with investors since the company's fortunes took a hard turn last summer.
"Last year was awful. I deeply, deeply regret that," Kevin Sharer said, appearing calm and confident during an hour long presentation to an audience of several hundred at the Four Seasons Hotel in Westlake Village.
He also sought to reassure investors. Sharer said the company was off to a good start this year and suggested that many of Amgen's woes should be viewed along with problems affecting all drug companies. "I'm not making any excuses . . . but things are pretty stormy out there right now."
Which Big Pharma CEO has wandering eyes?
So, here's the story:
When Michele Royalty wore a simple black strapless gown to a black-tie business dinner for her pharmaceutical company, she says, "I saw the CEO's eyes drop to my cleavage."
"Once a CEO is startled by seeing your cleavage, an image is set in his mind that is not going to disappear," says Ms. Royalty, who recently retired as an executive at the company. "I never wore that type of dress again."
So the $64,000 dollar question - who did Michele work for?
The article doesn't say.
Wednesday, May 07, 2008
GSK sell bonds to buy shares
GlaxoSmithKline, the pharmaceutical group, was poised to raise a record $9bn (£4.6bn) from new corporate bonds on Tuesday night as part of plans to raise its gearing to finance an ambitious share buy-back programme.
Demand from investors for non-financial corporate bond issues is high following the credit crunch, and the original $6bn issue was substantially oversubscribed. GSK added $2bn to its five, 10 and 30-year bonds and a further $1bn in floating rate two-year notes.
Most of the money will go towards funding the outstanding £8bn of a two-year £12bn buy-back unveiled in July last year and set to be completed by July 2009.
More at the FT
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
What are we doing to our children?
American children take anti-psychotic medicines at about six times the rate of children in the United Kingdom, according to a comparison based on a new U.K. study.
And with scant long-term safety data, it's likely the drugs are being over-prescribed for both U.S. and U.K. children, research suggests.
Among the most commonly used drugs were those to treat autism and hyperactivity.
In the U.K. study, there were 595 anti-psychotic prescriptions for children in 1992, or a rate of fewer than four children per 10,000 using the drugs. By 2005, 2,917 prescriptions were written, or a rate of seven children per 10,000 — a near-doubling, said lead author Fariz Rani, a researcher at the University of London's School of Pharmacy.
The study is in the May edition of the journal Pediatrics.
More
Safety first!
The UK's Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has published Drug Safety Update Issue 10 (PDF).
This issue includes drug safety advice articles on rimonabant (Acomplia): depression; psychiatric adverse reactions and exenatide (Byetta): risk of acute pancreatitis.
Hat tip: http://www.prescriber.org.uk/
Wal-Mart meds - now even cheaper!
WalMart is going one step further! They are cutting the cost of more than 1,000 of its store-brand, over the counters drugs.
They're now available for $4 without a prescription. There's also additional women's health medicines availbale at discounted prices.
Today Walmart announced the third phase of its' prescription drug program.
It will now offer 90-day prescriptions for $10 for 350 medications.
For a complete list Walmart's discounted prescription drugs click here.
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