A quiet time

April 17, 2009 – 4:24 pm

Newswise, things seemed a little slow this week; it seems a lot of people were at the DTC National conference in Washington, D.C. I wasn’t. Instead, I got to write a 26-page script for the Manny Awards (don’t worry, Manny attendees, the evening will take far less time, and be much more enjoyable, than writing this script was). But there was some interesting news, primarily, Pfizer and GlaxoSmithKline deciding to combine their HIV operations into a new company. Other items included Roche and Genentech announcing management changes, in which Dr. Art Levinson will be stepping down as CEO of the company; the AARP released its Rx Watchdog Report that found manufacturer prices for prescription drugs jumped by almost 9% in 2008, which the organization called the largest increase in years (the report was panned by PhRMA, which claimed AARP was trying to deflect attention away from its lucrative insurance businesses, and supported by the Generic Pharmaceutical Association); AstraZeneca got a temporary restraining order against Apotex’s marketing a generic version of Pulmicort Respules; and a study was released saying pharma reps’ visits to doctors are frequently a waste of time and resources, since one in eight visits are impossible to achieve.

Around and about …

Fard Johnmar at Envisioning 2.0 say the FDA’s warning letters over online advertisements that link to product Websites have left pharma dazed and confused. “While industry executives are perplexed by the new warning letters, one can look at this situationa as a glass half full,” Mr. Johnmar says. “Demands on the FDA to issueclear and unabigious guidance on Internet and social media marketing will only increase. I understand that people inside FDA are open to dialogue. In my opinion it can’t happen fast enough.”

Baker’s Blog observes that the changes being forced on Genentech by Roche are not slight.

Ellen Hoenig Carlson at the Back of the Book Marketing Blog has 10 social media watch-outs for pharma and healthcare marketers. She also cautions not to forget about the usefulness of e-mail as part of DTC advertising.

Some pharma companies want a seat at the healthcare reform table, says Jim Edwards at Bnet. “Eli Lilly, Pfizer, Bayer, Roche and AstraZeneca all agree on healthcare reform in the U.S.: They want to see the system changed so long as it in no way hurts their companies,” he quips. Also, a British corporate watchdog group is urging AstraZeneca shareholders to vote against the management’s annual report and compensation plan; Pfizer is trying to figure out why Viagra boxer shorts were sent to Irish doctors; and Carl Icahn managed to make Amylin avoid triggering its “poison pill” clause in its debt agreements.

As he was following the action at DTC National via Twitter, Rich Meyer of World of DTC Marketing made the observation that he believes IMS Health is a dinosaur. Not sure where he’s getting those stats from, though. And Mr. Meyers feels that there was some deafening silence on some matters. “Will DTC ever change?” he wonders. “I’m not sure to be honest with you. Pharma has a lot of skeletons in the closet and there are a lot of hidden agendas.”

Wendy Blackburn at ePharma Rx talks about how to give a pharma company’s social brand lots of legs. “Not surprisingly, many of our clients are now asking: ‘Why do we need to create a Facebook page, a YouTube channel, and all this other stuff? Aren’t our existing online properties enough?’ In a word: No. At least, not anymore. The reach of social media cannot be ignored,” she says.

Thomas Sullivan at Policy and Medicine shares Vermont’s physician payment disclosure report. “Overall the report is a lot of detail about very little money,” he says. “If the state thinks that the states Medicare and Medicaid funds will be saved by banning gifts, they are going to come up with a very small number especially given that most of the payments were for consulting and education.”

Sarah Rubenstein at the Wall Street Journal Health Blog also has details on the Vermont report; apparently Eli Lilly was the top spender.

Adverse event reporting has increased dramatically, says John Mack at the Pharma Marketing Blog. He also says the Viagra boxer shorts are an example of proto-nostalgia tchochke.

Mark Senak at Eye on FDA reflects on his panel and the events at the DTC National Conference. A good summary if you couldn’t make it, like me.

At the InVivo Blog, Melanie Senior comments on the Pfizer/GSK HIV deal; Ramsey Baghdadi looks at the real impact of Dendreon’s IMPACT study for Provenge; and Chris Morrison shares some highlights from the Pharmaceutical Strategic Outlook Conference.

If you don’t know how the Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act came into being, Dr. Barbara Martin at Pathophilia this week has a four-part history of the legislation, starting here.

FDA’s decision this week to approve several ANDAs for generic versions of topiramate sprinkle capsules signals a new interpretation of the 180-day generic exclusivity provisions of the FDC Act, says Kurt A Karst a the FDA Law Blog.

Sally Church at the Pharma Strategy Blog tells us why competitive intelligence gathering should be crucial to a pharma company, and how social media monitoring can help pharma get smarter.

Carol Gorman at the S&R Blog wonders if the criticism of medical ghostwriting has gone too far.