Happy new year, sort of

Yes, the Pharma Blog Week in Review is back. I had to take a break from it over the holidays; I even became so silent on Twitter that I had a few folks ask me if I was all right. But I knew I’d get back into the swing of things in the new year.

And what a week to get back into it. It kicked off the with the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference in San Francisco, was punctuated by the devastating earthquake in Haiti, accented by the FTC urging Congress for legislation against pay-for-delay deals between pharma and generics companies, the Government Accountability Office finding extraordinary price hikes over time in branded drugs, FDA launching a basic information site about the agency and what it does, reports of planned job cuts at Merck and Pfizer and Stanford University launching a CME program with a Pfizer grant, and ended with the U.S. Attorney’s office in Boston accusing Johnson & Johnson of paying kickbacks to put more nursing home patients on Risperdal. Also this week, wrangling continued over the final form of healthcare reform legislation, with biosimilars manufacturers lobbying hard to reduce the competitive protection for branded biotech drugs.

Jammin’ at the Westin St. Francis

Were you in San Francisco this week? I wasn’t, but in following folks on Twitter such as Shwen Gwee, lead for new media communication at Vertex Pharmaceuticals (you can read his 10 things you should know about social media here), the Street’s Adam Feuerstein, and CNBC’s Mike Huckman, it almost seemed like I was there. Except, of course, for the not being sardined into antique hallways of the Westin St. Francis (a plus) and the inability to satisfy my craving for a Mission District-style burrito (definitely a plus for my diet). The Med Ad News Insider did manage to snag a little color commentary from Kevin Butler of Heritage Partners; Mr. Butler’s thoughts can be found here, here, and here.

Here’s some of what Mr. Huckman covered while in San Francisco. I especially was captivated by the interview he did with CEO John Crowley of Amicus Therapeutics, whose story is the basis of the upcoming Harrison Ford/Brendan Fraser movie “Extraordinary Measures.” Mr. Crowley has written a book about his experiences called “Chasing Miracles,” and if you’re in the Princeton area on Jan. 23, he’ll be doing a signing at the Barnes & Noble bookstore at Princeton MarketFair. Maybe I’ll swing by. Mr. Huckman also Tweeted out photos of how crowded the hotel was. Reports were that 6,500 people showed up.

Mr. Feuerstein had a lot to say from J.P. Morgan, including catching sight of former ImClone CEO Sam Waksal, now out of jail and reportedly searching for a new opportunity, and news on the delay for MannKind’s inhaled insulin, Celgene’s 2010 guidance, and Genzyme CEO Henri Termeer’s mea culpas on the company’s manufacturing difficulties. Mr. Feuerstein reported that the sharks are swimming around Mr. Termeer. Stay tuned.

GlaxoSmithKline was one of the many companies at the conference and was extremely busy, as its blog, More than Medicine, reports.

The general word on Twitter about the conference, backed up by writers such as The Boston Globe’s Robert Weisman, is that investors and companies seemed a lot more hopeful than last year. I’d call that a good sign for the future.

Vertex Pharmaceuticals was very active, social media-wise, at the conference. Besides doing a live Webcast of the presentation by CEO Matt Emmens (Mr. Huckman had color commentary about the presentation) the company had a Twitter channel. The company describes it as a two-week trial run of social media. “Vertex recognizes the importance of new communication channels (i.e. new and social media) for engaging our stakeholders in a real and meaningful way,” the company states. “However, as a biopharmaceutical company with development-stage products, we are committed to certain ethical, legal, and regulatory standards unique to this industry. So, while we seek to embrace social media and engage with our audiences, we wish to do so responsibly.” The channel will be up until Jan. 22, and then the company will evaluate the findings coming from the experiment and decide whether it is worth continuing. (My feeling it’s going to be a yes. Then again, I am not a lawyer.)

Around and about …

Ed Silverman and Pharmalot keep on chugging along. Here are some interesting Pharmalot tidbits from this week: a study suggests that bipolar diagnosis has jumped in young kids; a doctor faces federal fraud charges over research for Pfizer’s Vioxx and Celebrex; Jim Gottstein, the Zyprexa document-leaker, is heading to court; the “Gardasil grope” continues; Kaiser Permanente is petitioning the FDA over REMS costs; Lilly, Bayer, Amylin, and Cephalon were smacked with warning letters; NIH and JAMA reported that biomedical research funding is slowing; an HRT lawsuit against Pfizer was revived and the SEC filed an insider trading lawsuit against a drug executive.

Also chugging along is Jim Edwards at Bnet, who in reaction to a rebuttal debunking FTC’s report on generic deals, asks if pay-for-delay deals are good for consumers, why do companies sign them? He also thinks J&J’s recall of Tylenol seems painfully slow this time around and if a researcher’s fake studies were linked to Pfizer’s “Operate for Cash” scheme; and also among some of the things he looks at are the Department of Justice’s allegations that J&J’s kickback scheme with Omnicare threatened to lower the best price of Risperdal that the company had been reporting to the government, whether Pfizer’s interest in Enzon will create a jackpot payday for Enzon’s CEO, who drug company lobbyists are backing for Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat, the two strikes against Gilead’s non-HIV franchises, how the GAO report raises more questions than answers, and how Purdue Pharma concealed OxyContin withdrawal rates.

With the disaster in Haiti, the pharmaceutical industry has stepped to the fore to assist. Marc Monseau at JNJ BTW tells what Johnson & Johnson has done and how we can help; GlaxoSmithKline’s More than Medicine’s blog reports on employee efforts to assist Haiti; and AZ Health Connections, AstraZeneca’s corporate blog, reports that the company has donated medicines and about $163,000 so far to the relief efforts.

Who’s on Twitter? Richard Pops, the CEO of Alkermes, that’s who (hat tip again to Mr. Huckman). Yes, I’m following him. No, he’s not followed me back, and I doubt he will, because I am just a lowly trade journal editor and he is mighty. Still, you never know. Hope abounds.

Bob Ehrlich of DTC in Perspective takes on the myths of DTC advertising, again. “I think the drug lobbyists need to argue that in fact DTC lowers consumers’ prices,” he says. “If the government or private insurers want to negotiate, they need brands familiar to consumers to play one brand against the other. DTC creates awareness and also creates acceptance of alternative brands. Once consumers are equally aware of several brands, it is easier for a doctor and plan to substitute the lower cost version. Lipitor knows they have to compete with Crestor, and generic Zocor and Pravachol. That competition lowers prices.”

Jon Richman at Dose of Digital gives us 14 things to inspire digital marketing in 2010; and gives us three resolutions thus far: Stop talking about social media, become an expert in just one thing digital, and learn five things your customers do online. Go tell ‘em, Jon!

Dr. Derek Lowe at In the Pipeline examines the apparent worthlessness of the sirtuin compounds GlaxoSmithKline acquired with Sirtis, and the scenarios that look at whether or not GlaxoSmithKline knew that. “… now that these doubts have come up, GSK has a real interest in pointing out any success it may have,” he says. “If its sirtuin compounds go into the clinic and just sort of hang there, that will probably be an even worse sign than usual. And if no sirtuin compounds even go into the clinic at all, well, the question has answered itself. I hope that’s not what happens.”

What’s the future of phamaceutical detailing? Dave Recht, the CEO of North State Resources (the holding company for the agencies S&R Communications and Friday Morning), has some opinions on the subject.

In reaction to the news that GlaxoSmithKline, the marketer of the diet drug Alli, wants to fund a documentary about eating with an Academy Award-winning director, John Mack at the Pharma Marketing Blog asks to be invited to Sundance and speculates why the company would want to fund such a film. “… why should GSK spend money on a new film when it was a major sponsor of a 2006 documentary on obesity produced by PBS: ‘Fat: What No One is Telling You?’ … I believe that GSK is sponsoring a NEW documentary on obesity BECAUSE ‘Fat’ spent too much time on the surgery solution …” Expect the new film to have more to say about pharmaceutical solutions such as Alli, Mr. Mack says.

Dr. Daniel Carlat at the Carlat Psychiatry Blog says it’s time for a new psychiatry, as he reviews the reaction to the JAMA study about the effectiveness of antidepressants. “So my question is, why don’t we embrace all these potential cures rather than lining up behind our favorite technique to defend its merits?” he says. “Drugs work. Therapy works. Time works. And placebos work. If psychiatrists and psychologists could possibly call a truce in their various battles over therapy effectiveness and prescription privileges, we might be able to imagine a different kind of practitioner – one who is skilled in both psychopharmacology and psychotherapy. Isn’t this the kind of doctor we would all want to see when it’s our turn to get help?”

Sally Church at the Pharma Strategy Blog looks at FDA’s extension of the review for Tarceva. She was at the AACR meeting in San Diego instead of at J.P. Morgan in San Francisco. She gives a lowdown, in three parts, of data from the meeting about personalized therapy in lung cancer. Part 1 is here and part 2 is here (part 3 and part 4 are forthcoming).

Margarita Noriega of BIO, at the organization’s Patently Biotech blog, posts a study that shows 12-year data exclusivity is a win-win for patient access and biotech innovation.

Bunny Ellerin at Pharma 2.0 looks at Tweetchats on pharma and social media and AstraZeneca’s AZ Helps.

Brett Chase, who blogs for Portfolio.com at Heavy Doses, says a glut of flu vaccine threatens drugmakers sales.

Joshua Slatko at the Med Ad News Insider blog shares comments from Eric Assaraf of Concept Capital on the FTC’s stance on pay-for-delay; and I wonder what form pharma can play in the adoption of electronic health records.