Well, it could be argued that the industry has found ways of manipulating the incidence of disease. Consider "disease mongering" and diagnostic aids.
Comments welcomed!
The Italian medicines agency AIFA and the business federation Farmindustria have expressed deep concern about the decision by the Italian government to cut the pharma budget and use the resources for funding relief for the earthquake in Abruzzo.
Ministers have drafted a decree to provide funding for the area affected. One of the measures is a reduction of €400m in the amount the national health services can spend on medicines distributed through pharmacies in 2009.
"Most of the things worth doing in the world had been declared impossible before they were done."
-Louis D. Brandeis
A Pfizer promotional campaign for the controversial drug Chantix - which includes financing a course for doctors through the University of Wisconsin-Madison - has helped the drug dominate the prescription smoking-treatment market while burying mention of its serious side effects.
Chantix now accounts for 90% of smoking cessation prescriptions, even though the Food and Drug Administration has been investigating the drug for a rash of serious side effects, such as suicidal behavior and blackouts.
None of the side effects are mentioned in the UW continuing education online course, which is paid for by Pfizer. The course directly mentions only Chantix as a first-line treatment, even though the drug is one of seven first-line treatments, according to national guidelines.
Further, organizations such as the Department of Veterans Affairs, say Chantix should not be considered as a first-line treatment.
Pfizer said that Corey Goodman, a senior vice president hired 19 months ago to lead Pfizer’s biotechnology center in California, has resigned.
Pfizer gave no reason for Goodman’s departure in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission today. Goodman held the title of president of Pfizer’s Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center in South San Francisco, California. His resignation is effective May 31.
"2009 is set to redefine the structure and dynamics of the pharmaceutical industry in a way not seen since the year 2000"
Background
On 26th January 2009, Pfizer announced plans to acquire Wyeth for $68 billion. Pfizer’s CEO, Jeffrey B Kindler, insisted the deal would be different from the company’s earlier mega-deals involving the acquisitions of Pharmacia (2002) and Warner-Lambert (2000) – the acquisition of Wyeth would provide a broad and diversified portfolio, rather than been focused on a single product or cost-cutting. Pfizer’s strategy of growing its portfolio through a mega M&A deals follows the 2008 acquisitions of Millennium by Takeda and ImClone by Eli Lilly.
These major deals are likely to result in two alternative industry responses:
a wave of consolidation involving further mega-deals;
the emergence of independent players that continue to build their portfolios through internal development, licensing and smaller scale acquisitions.
Leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies must decide how best to respond Pfizer’s proposition that ‘size matters’. Those that choose to consolidate will have to identify the best prospects, consolidate portfolios and execute synergy cost savings. Those that choose not to embark down the mega-deal path will still have to adapt to a more consolidated world in which broad, diverse portfolios and an efficient cost base or a minimum requirement to compete.
Report Purpose
Mergers and Acquisitions in the Pharmaceuticals Sector, 2009 - Critical success factors for competing in a consolidating market from URCH Publishing, explores the merits of the mega-deal in contrast to a more measured portfolio growth strategy and highlights the key opportunities and challenges presented by both business models. A detailed assessment of recent deals will identify the key issues and success factors, while the future M&A strategies of the leading pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies will also be assessed. Finally, the impact of consolidation in the industry will evaluated both at the organizational and therapeutic market level. All companies, big and small will be affected by the shake-up. This report will help to understand the key opportunities and challenges that lie ahead in order to formulate a robust response to a changing competitive landscape.
Some key findings from the report
Significant industry consolidation will lead to a fundamental shift in the market dynamics across all major product categories.
Since the beginning of 2006 a total of seven deals have been agreed with total transaction fees in excess of US$10 billion.
It appears likely that the mega-M&A wave started by the 3 deals in Q109 is not yet finished.
A handful of major players will follow in the footsteps of Pfizer and enter into major M&A transactions involving a significant step change in market shares and industry consolidation.
Reasons to buy this report
Understand the M&A environment in the pharmaceuticals industry.
Be informed about likely mergers and analyse companies that could be acquired in the near future
Assess the success factors that underlie a successful acquisition and review those which have delivered long-term shareholder value.
Draw on advice to manage your company to compete in an increasingly consolidated marketplace.
Gain insight into how drug portfolios are managed in an M&A situation and best value is extracted.
$3,000! for 111 pages.
PharmaGossip is free!
The UK's National Institute of Health and Clinical Excellence has published new guidance for the month of April.
There are two guidelines that may impact on primary care, a clinical guideline on diarrhoea and vomiting in children under 5 and another clinical guideline on glaucoma.
The former guidelines covers the diagnosis, assessment of dehydration, fluid management, nutritional management and the role of antibiotics and other therapies in treating diarrhoea and vomiting in children under 5. The guideline also dispels the commonly held view that sugary drinks such as flat cola and lemonade aids in recovery; in fact this strategy may worsen symptoms. This aspect of the guidance has been widely reported in the media (BBC).
The latter guideline details the diagnosis, treatment and care of:
THE drug company Merck had a cardiologist sign his name to a medical journal article it wrote claiming there was no evidence of any heart risk attached to its drug Vioxx, court documents allegedly show.
In an internal email in August 2001 to discuss a draft of the manuscript, a Merck senior researcher, Briggs Morrison, expressed concern about the claim that Vioxx was not associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events.
"That seems wishful thinking, not a critical interpretation of the data," Dr Morrison said in an email to colleagues. "The data appears to have been interpreted to support a pre-conceived hypothesis."
The claim was nonetheless included in the final version of the article, which was sent by Merck to the US cardiologist Dr Marvin Konstam for approval.
Dr Konstam was named as the lead author of the article, published in the medical journal Circulation in October 2001. Five of the authors were Merck employees and the other two, including Dr Konstam, were paid consultants.
The email was tendered to the Federal Court yesterday as part of a class action on behalf of every Australian who had cardiovascular conditions after completing at least one prescription of Vioxx between June 30, 1999 and its worldwide recall in 2004. The class action, which includes more than 1000 people, alleges Merck covered up a higher risk of cardiovascular conditions.
The drug Avastin failed to prevent colon cancer from recurring by a significant amount in a clinical trial, the drug’s manufacturer, Genentech, said early Wednesday.
The results of the trial had been closely watched because a success would have paved the way to a new use of the drug, potentially increasing sales by billions of dollars a year.
Now those efforts will be set back, and it appears that Roche, the pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, may have paid more than it needed to acquire Genentech in March. Roche shares fell 10 percent in early trading in Europe.
What's a PharmaScold??
Here's Ed's blog: 
