Showing posts with label PhRMA. Show all posts
Showing posts with label PhRMA. Show all posts

Saturday, July 27, 2013

Bergstroem's mobilising memo

Dear members and colleagues,

please find below a message from Richard Bergstroem , EFPIA DG with respect to the various elements of the Clinical Data sharing debate , the assignment of responsibilities (including work with US PhRMA colleagues) and next steps

A. Forthcoming industry commitment, incl advocacy:


The EFPIA Board has approved the draft position paper developed jointly by PhRMA and EFPIA. The final version is attached, and is now subject to confirmation by the PhRMA Board two weeks from now. PhRMA and EFPIA plan concomitant press releases in the week of July 22.


The advocacy plan, previously approved by the two Boards is underway, and follows four strands:

1. Mobilising patient groups to express concern about the risk to public health by non-scientific re-use of data.
2. Engaging with scientific associations to shape the industry commitment for data sharing, and to discuss concerns about re-use of data.
3. Work with other business sectors that are also concerned about release of trade secrets and commercially confidential data.
4. For the long-term, build a network of academics across Europe that has the capacity to counteract mis-use of data (that is deemed to be happen in any case).
 

There will be a series of meetings in Brussels, organised jointly by PhRMA and EFPIA, in the week of August 26 to advance these strands.


This work (commitment and advocacy) is coordinated by [Redacted], in close cooperation with PhRMA ([Redacted] and [Redacted]), with oversight by Richard Bergstroem and [Redacted], PhRMA.


B. EMA consultation on draft :


On June 24th , the EMA published its revised policy on the publication and access to clinical trial data for consultation. Comments are invited and should be provided to the EMA by 30 September 2013.

Whereas the press release was quite balanced, the detailed proposal raises concerns:


1. No process outlined to discuss CCI in CSRs prior to release.
2. Raw data: unenforceable controls to ensure robust and scientifically credible secondary analyses.
3. Requirement for anonymised raw data to be supplied at submission negates EMA’s responsibility for release of PP information.
4. Publication of CSRs from withdrawn or unsuccessful submissions could undermine future commercial viability of product.
5. Identification of study personnel.


The EMA document takes into consideration the outcome of the process run by the 5 CT advisory groups earlier in the year to which EFPIA contributed through the input prepared by the 5 Temporary Working groups (TWG) set up under the SRM PC auspices.

A detailed response will be prepared by a joint EFPIA-PhRMA team. The work will be led by [Redacted], Lilly, [Redacted]. From the EFPIA side the  EFPIA TWG chairs (Rules of engagement, Patient confidentiality, good analysis practice, CT data format, legal aspects) will be part of the drafting group:


[Names of four individuals within the drafting group redacted]

PhRMA will assign a small group of people from the bigger EMA data disclosure WG.
The drafting group will tentatively have a TC July 9.
The final draft will be shared for consultation with the broader membership later this month.

C: EFPIA-PhRMA intervention in the AbbVie case:
[Name], Pfizer, leads this work, in close cooperation with PhRMA and external legal counsel.
 

D: Clinical Trial Regulation:
Advocacy directed at Council (and EC and EP) will focus on:
- avoiding definitions of CCI in the CTR itself,
- seek to delete preamble text that CSRs do not "in general" include CCI (even if current text is acceptable as fall-back position).
 

The EFPIA PACT(Public Affairs on Clinical Trials) is responsible and will work closely with national associations and Brussels staff.

Regards,

[Redacted]

http://social.eyeforpharma.com/market-access/exclusive-guardian-memo-leak-richard-bergstrom

Sunday, December 19, 2010

AZ's Brennan speaks! Pass me the bucket (of money)



Bucket story

The Seroquel story

Question 1. How much did Dave Brennan know about "The Seroquel Issue" at the time?

http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2009/10/astrazeneca-to-pay-520-million-to.html

The pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca said Thursday (29/Oct/09) that it had reached a $520 million agreement to settle two federal investigations and two whistle-blower lawsuits over the sale and marketing of its blockbuster psychiatric drug Seroquel.

One of the investigations related to “selected physicians who participated in clinical trials involving Seroquel,” AstraZeneca disclosed in a government filing. The other case related to off-label promotion of the drug.

H. Waxman's letter:

http://oversight.house.gov/Documents/20070305175741-03469.pdf

The Zoladex issue:

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2003/June/03_civ_371.htm

Question 2

What do you think Corporate Integrity Agreements are?

http://oig.hhs.gov/fraud/cia/agreements/AstraZeneca06042003.PDF

This might help.

http://peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/04/secret-astrazeneca-audio-tapes.html

http://peterrost.blogspot.com/2007/04/open-letter-to-oig-from-astrazeneca.html

Question 3

Is Dr Michael Reinstein one of the Seroquel investigators under investigation by the DoJ?

http://pharmagossip.blogspot.com/2009/11/dr-michael-reinstein-clozaril-king-is.html

Today's question (4):

Was Geoff Birkett the "man behind the curtain" in the Seroquel Scandal?

Someone has to take the fall Dave!

http://www.chicagotribune.com/health/chi-drugs-seroquel-reinsteinnov11,0,6067737.story



Last question, for now:


If you or AZ or anyone have any issues of fact about any of this then please say and it will be changed/removed. If not, the so be it!

Friday, November 14, 2008

Drug war - Montel vs Barack


The nation's largest pharmaceutical lobbying group is preparing a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign to tout the importance of free-market health care and undercut an expected push by the Obama administration for price controls of prescription drugs.

The effort, which will include a national television commercial scheduled to begin airing next week, is the first salvo in what likely will be a huge battle over health care reform during the Obama presidency.

Other major industries are also gearing up for the fight, including big businesses and insurance companies. But the stakes are especially high for drugmakers, which stand to lose as much as $30 billion in revenue if President-elect Barack Obama's plan to let the federal government negotiate Medicare drug prices is implemented, according to one independent report.

"There's no question that next year will be a challenging year," said Ken Johnson, senior vice president with the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, or PhRMA, which is organizing the campaign.

Mr. Obama attacked drug companies repeatedly during his election campaign.

PhRMA says its upcoming advertisement, which will feature TV talk show host and PhRMA spokesman Montel Williams, doesn't criticize the pending Obama administration or any of its health care proposals.

"We're going to do an ad campaign that is designed to make people aware of the importance of preserving your free-market health care system," Mr. Johnson said.

He added that PhRMA recognizes that "some reforms are needed in order to keep that system vibrant."

Mr. Johnson said PhRMA would've embarked on exactly the same ad campaign if Mr. Obama's Republican presidential rival, Sen. John McCain, had won last week's presidential election.

Mr. Obama has said he will hold drug and insurance companies "accountable for the prices they charge and the harm they cause." He has promised to allow Medicare to negotiate with drugmakers for cheaper prices, he said.

Giving Medicare the authority to negotiate drug prices - a provision that they currently don't have - would cause the pharmaceutical industry to lose $10 billion to $30 billion in annual revenues, according to a report released last month by the Boston Consulting Group.

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Rope sale on the Schip of Fools

With a liberal supermajority in Washington increasingly possible, business is trying to buy up protection, in the hope that Democrats will go easier on them. Henry Waxman is no doubt grateful for this offer of the rope with which he will hang them.

Most notable is the drug industry's $13.2 million ad buy to prop up 28 Congressional candidates, many of them vulnerable and all but three of them Democrats. Funded by the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America, the industry trade group, the spots salute politicians who supported last fall's unsuccessful $60 billion expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (Schip). Democrats failed to override President Bush's vetoes, but they'll prevail on their next try -- then continue on their march to national health care.

More at WSJ

Thursday, September 25, 2008

Let there be light

Amid a national debate over the influence of industry money on medical research and practice, two pharmaceutical giants say they will begin publicly reporting payments they make to outside doctors.

John C. Lechleiter, chief executive of Eli Lilly & Company, announced on Wednesday that starting next year it intended to post in an online database all its payments to doctors for speaking and consulting services. The postings will “likely include” the names of the doctors, or will provide some other identifying information about them, along with the reason for the payments, the company said.

In the wake of Lilly’s announcement, Merck & Company said later Wednesday that it would disclose speaking fees it pays to doctors, also beginning in 2009.

More at NYT

Wednesday, September 10, 2008

Cathy DeAngelis tells it like it is

"The influence that the pharmaceutical companies, the for-profits, are having on every aspect of medicine ... is so blatant now you'd have to be deaf, blind and dumb not to see it," said Journal of the American Medical Association editor Dr. Catherine DeAngelis, a longtime industry critic. "We have just allowed them to take over, and it's our fault, the whole medical community."

More

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Billy barks

“It’s an accumulation of things some companies did over the years, now it’s death by a thousand cuts.” He told drugmakers, “We gotta stop the bleeding.”