These are really tough times for pharma

Jan/17/2008 05:12 Filed in: Pharma Business
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The promotion of Vytorin is going to be investigated by Congress, antidepressants may not work and Novartis earnings take a 45% hit. Iceberg dead ahead ! These are really tough times for pharma and it seems that they are getting hit from all sides. No new blockbusters on the way and in the next few years a lot of current blockbusters will be coming off of patent. It's going to make or break a lot of CEO's and only those with real leadership potential can guide this ship in an ocean full of deadly obstacles.



Some of the issues facing the pharmaceutical industry were brought on lack of transparency but others reflect the changing environment which we all face. Not only do consumers have more power but the media has gone to lengths to point out the shortcomings in pharmaceutical product marketing. Of course this is all coming in an election year where talk is shifting from the war to the economy and surely part of that talk is going to focus on prescription drug prices and promotion. With Vytorin Congress is going to want to know who knew what and when and don't be surprised if someone suggests that DTC claims have to be linked directly to clinical trial results.

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Then news this morning found that industry-sponsored studies of antidepressants that come up with positive results are more likely to be published than those that come up with negative results. This according to a paper in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine. And if all this were not enough now some prominent cardiologists say the results of two recent clinical trials have raised serious questions about the theory of linking high cholesterol to CV health — and the value of two widely used cholesterol-lowering medicines, Zetia and its sister drug, Vytorin. Other new cholesterol-fighting drugs, including one that Merck hopes to begin selling this year, may also require closer scrutiny, they say.


If I were a pharma CEO right now the glass case with the emergency bottle of Jack Daniels would be broken and the seal broken.


So how much does blame does pharma deserve for all this? Well Harry Truman has a sign on his desk that said "the buck stops here" and frankly CEO's get paid the big bucks to steer their companies through tough times. Part of their management has to be anticipating future trends and ensuring that their company is able to compete. To tell you the truth they didn't do this well at all and that's one of the primary reasons so many are leaving. The addiction to blockbusters is also another key reason but most people in marketing know that eventually all top products are challenged by competitors and market share is a trophy which we have to fight for year after year and in most cases passes from one company to another.


Finally the lack of transparency and some really bad decisions by key executives have fostered the "let's go after them" attitude by the media and Congress. But to this author the real tragedy is that somewhere along the way people in pharma forgot that patients are the reason we are all here not Wall Street and stock price.
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