Jun/27/2007 05:57 Filed in:
Internet
& DTC Marketing
About 1% of all
blogs deal with health, according to a 2006 study
by the Pew Internet & American Life Project.
Many are by consumers writing about their own
health issues, but "the numbers of health care
providers who are blogging is steadily growing,"
says Fard Johnmar, founder of Envision Solutions,
a New York health care marketing firm. Why not
Blog? As hard as it to believe physicians are
people too and are as confused about healthcare
issues as we all are. Read
More...
Jun/26/2007 06:34 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
With the annual
market for diabetes drugs expected to reach at
least $25 billion worldwide by 2011, up from $15
billion today, drug makers have been investing
heavily in new approaches to treating diabetes.
With the recent troubles of oral agents
injectable medications are now gaining more
attention including Byetta which has quietly seen
its market share increase without substantial DTC
because of world of mouth about one of Byetta's
side effects...weight loss. Read
More...
Tags: Byetta
Jun/25/2007 05:50 Filed in:
DTC
Environment
Last week one of
the readers to my BLOG sent me an eMail that said
simply; your the only person I know in the
industry who really cares about patients. While I
took this as a huge compliment it is also
indicative of the sorry state of current DTC and
the perception that pharma only really cares
about their balance sheets not patient safety and
health. Read
More...
Ahhh yes. That
time of year when the DTC Perspectives issue
arrives with the "Top 25 DTC Marketers" which
surely has to be an oxymoron. This trade magazine
is such a joke that nobody in the industry really
takes it seriously. It's news is shallow and
outdated and, judging from the list of the top 25
marketers, its selection criteria is based more
upon relationships within the industry than what
anyone has actually done, or has not done.
Read
More...
Jun/15/2007 10:27 Filed in:
Current
DTC
According to an
article in today's Chicago Tribune Rozerem is
"barely making a dent" in the prescription sleep
market (DUH!). Let's see spend over $100 dollars
on a DTC campaign that is horribly bad and then
sit back and wonder why you have not made a dent
in the sleep market? Earth to Takeda: It's about
the point of difference NOT the fact that Abe
Lincoln and a beaver say your dreams miss you
! Read
More...
Tags: Rozerem
Jun/14/2007 06:32 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
I enjoy reading
analyst reports from financial companies. They
are great for making me laugh as a lot of the
insights are DUH 101 and have no basis in
reality. A perfect example is the latest report
issued by PWC titled "Pharma 2020: The Vision,
Which Path Will You Take? CEO's can just throw
away their strategic plans and use this as a
roadmap to company enlightenment and riches.
Among other things, the report explains that
pharma is leaving over $3 billion on the table
because of noncompliance of patients. (DUH) It
took how many high paid analysts to figure this
out? Read
More...
Tags: Future Of Pharma
Jun/13/2007 02:05 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Well it take
long for me to get some eMail on my last post.
Thank you for responding and raising some great
issues, but for a moment put yourself in a
patients shoes. You are a Type 2 diabetic doing
well on Avandia and really don't want to switch
to another medication. As a patient what I would
want to know is; what are the risks of a heart
attack on Avandia, and what are my risks for a
heart attack on Avandia? I would want to know the
percentage of patients in ongoing clinical trials
that had issues and if these issues were due to
the medication or other risk factors including
weight, family history of heart disease and high
cholesterol. So the questions remain for GSK and
the FDA to answer. Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
Jun/13/2007 06:08 Filed in:
In The
News
What do sperm
and lawyers have in common? One in ten million
has a chance of becoming a human being. The legal
profession overlooks no opportunity to chase an
ambulance and make a few dollars. The latest? A
class actions suit by investors against GSK
alleging the drug company misled investors about
the safety of diabetes drug Avandia, a step
investors have taken in past drug-safety
disputes. This of course while there is still
dispute over the what the data actually says but
no matter lawyers are already recruiting patients
from TV ads for class action against GSK.
Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
Jun/12/2007 06:05 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
A while back we
conducted two days of research with people who
have diabetes. The subject of credibility seemed
to come up again and again when discussing their
informational needs to help them decide on
treatment options. It comes down to this: people
want clear and concise information on the
product, its side effects and want promotional
information to be separated from medical
information. (DUH!) Well as the battle over
Avandia, and now Actos, intensifies some
publications are theorizing that GSK may have
manipulated data to meet marketing objectives.
From an editorial in today's New York
Times:
One disturbing possibility is that Glaxo has
designed tests that have the effect of meeting
the company’s marketing objectives while
minimizing risks. The F.D.A. may have allowed
itself to be outmaneuvered, approving designs
that won’t fully answer key safety
questions.
Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
Jun/11/2007 06:00 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Well the fallout
from potential FDA scrutiny of new drug
applications has started. This author has learned
that several pharma companies are already
planning to kill or postpone new drugs in
development because of the increased cost and
time of development to ensure approval. While the
FDA bows to political pressure patients who might
have benefitted from these drugs will have to
find possible treatments elsewhere. At a time
when the FDA is going to demand more data and
more clinical trials the business of drug
development will become even more about ROI and
less about patients. Read
More...
Tags: Drug development
Jun/07/2007 06:55 Filed in:
In The
News
What a mess !
That's the only way to think of the black box
warnings that were added to Avandia and Actos.
The hearings yesterday resembled a circus with
finger pointing and clear lines of difference
between Democrats and Republicans on the data
that was first reported in the NEJM. What are
physicians and patients supposed to think? Is the
data telling us the glass is half full or half
empty? Rather than utilizing the opinions of
third parties, namely physicians who have no
vested interest in the product, politicians took
it among themselves to interpret data
mispronouncing words along the way. This is what
happens when politics is mixed with science and
this is going to have broad implications for
patients and the pharmaceutical industry for
years to come. Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
Jun/06/2007 06:47 Filed in:
Pharma
Business
Well the finger
pointing continues with the Avandia data with
continued media coverage most recently on the
front page of today's New York Times. While some
doctors are taking a 'wait and see" attitude it
seems that GSK has already started to feel the
effects of this story with declining sales.
Meanwhile what are patients expected to think?
Accusations and counter accusations are flying
back and forth which has done little to make
patients comfortable with treatment for Type II
diabetes. Read
More...
Tags: Avandia
