Impactiviti Daily – Top Pharma News 060410

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Impactiviti Daily will not be published next week, as I will be attending the annual Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers conference (SPBT) in Orlando.

TODAY’S NEWS:

As the pre-ASCO news heats up, the big headline will be leukemia treatments – specifically, BMS‘ Sprycel and Novartis‘ Gleevec and Tasigna (just in – Tasigna shown superior to Gleevec in slowing CML: 18-month results). Treatments in this class, by the way, are something near miracle drugs. They’ve totally revolutionized blood cancer treatments. In related news, Novartis’ Afinitor (approved for kidney cancer) meets goals in a trial for pancreatic cancer.

Why should you be interested in a “nanosponge”? Well, there’s this – Scientists have found that a delivery system based on a technique called nanosponge is three to five times more effective at reducing tumor growth than direct injection…more

Will Amgen‘s new osteoporosis drug Prolia find its true home in oncology treatment? – The company has also applied for FDA approval to market the drug to breast cancer and prostate cancer patients who are undergoing a hormone treatment that weakens their bones. What’s more, the company is conducting tests designed to show that Prolia prevents cancer from spreading to the bones — an indication that could push sales of the drug to as much as $6 billion annually, some analysts predict…more Also – huge sales force push for Prolia.

20% of high school students abuse prescription drugs. Wow – sobering.

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How to reduce e-mail ping-pong. You know all that back-and-forth? Here’s a way to undercut it at the start!

JUST FOR FUN

See-through animals. Ten of them. Amazing.

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Impactiviti Daily 060310 Top Pharma News

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TODAY’S NEWS:

Could low-dose Avandia be useful in preventing diabetes onset? This would be good news for GSK – GlaxoSmithKline Plc’s Avandia helped prevent the onset of diabetes when taken at a low dose with another drug, according to a company-sponsored study that suggests the regimen may help patients without raising heart attack risk. Half doses of Avandia and the therapy metformin, when combined, cut the risk of developing diabetes by two-thirds compared with placebo, Canadian researchers said..more

We’re in the gusher phase of the pre-ASCO press release flood. This sneak peek on BMS products is intriguing. More here – Four Scenarios for BMS.

Lying about data – people just don’t seem to learn. Sigh. And that goes for financial folks, politicians, climate scientists – it ain’t just pharma, folks!

Cephalon, Provigil and Nuvigil.

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PLUS

New iPhone app released by Novartis subsidiary CibaVision. My “live” review while playing with it – mixed feelings. And, while we’re doing reviews – a north Jersey restaurant (Tabor Road Tavern) that blew me away.

JUST FOR FUN

Who needs PSA tests for prostate cancer when you have Fido? What’s interesting is that this is – amusingly – serious!

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Impactiviti Daily 031510

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TODAY’S NEWS

TriCor = placebo? Not good news for Abbott – A popular triglyceride-lowering drug that has been taken by millions of Americans failed to prevent heart disease in a big federal study being presented today…more

FDA to Eli Lilly/Amylin on once-weekly Byetta: No.

OSI to Astellas: No.

FDA to Plavix (from BMS and Sanofi): black-box warning.

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PLUS

You’ve heard all about reach and frequency. How about each and recently? And, when it comes to Pharma and Social Media: One or Many?

JUST FOR FUN

Dogs filmed at 1,000 frames per second. You’ve never seen dogs jump quite like this before.

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Impactiviti Daily 030510

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TODAY’S NEWS

New blood thinner looking good; superior to Lovenox? – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.’s and Pfizer Inc.’s experimental blood thinner prevented dangerous blood clots from forming after knee replacement surgery better than Sanofi-Aventis’s Lovenox in a European study. The company-funded trial, dubbed Advance-2, found patients given apixaban pills twice daily were 38 percent less likely to develop clots deep in the legs, in the lungs or die within two weeks than those given intravenous Lovenox starting before the operation. People in both groups had a similar risk of bleeding, a feared complication of blood-thinning medications. SA..more BMS is talking about 60 drugs in testing phase these days…

Eisai‘s sales to go down by more than half – Japan’s No.4 drugmaker, said it expects annual U.S. sales of its flagship Alzheimer’s drug Aricept to fall 60 percent in three years, hit by the expiration of the drug’s patent later this year…more

The 10 scariest pharma and healthcare YouTube videos. From Dose of Digital blog.

Need new sales reps? Poach.

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PLUS

Tearing up the rule book on pharma sales force compensation (from Pharmaceutical Executive). And survey says: the glory days aren’t coming back.

JUST FOR FUN

What are “crepuscular rays”? You’ll recognize them when you see them! 20 gorgeous examples.

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Impactiviti Daily 020410

NEXT WEEK: IIRUSA’s ePharma Summit, Philadelphia, PA. I’ll be there, reporting live via social media. You?

TODAY’S NEWS

AstraZeneca looking down the barrel of 26,000 Seroquel lawsuits. Or so.

New treatment for debilitating hand condition – The Food and Drug Administration Tuesday approved the first drug designed to treat a debilitating hand condition known as Dupuytren’s contracture. The drug, called Xiaflex, is manufactured by Auxilium Pharmaceuticals Inc. of Malvern, Penn., and the company expects to begin selling it by the end of March. An FDA advisory panel in September unanimously recommended approval of the drug…more

A new kind of drug export – BMS employee accused of stealing secrets to try to start own pharma company in India!

Six key areas of learning for pharma and healthcare marketing in 2010.

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PLUS

Want to know the latest about Facebook adoption, and how it impacts business? Read this great post by Jay Baer. And, while we’re talking social networking: what is the goal as it relates to business (my post yesterday on Holistic Common Sense). Plus, Jon Richman on the Seven (soon to be Nine) Uses of Social Media in Business. And, over 1/2 of all adults now go online for health information, while physicians are very heavy users of internet resources (did you know that 1/3 have changed a patient treatment based on an internet search?)

JUST FOR FUN

When engineers get laid off and have too much time on their hands. Sheesh!

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Impactiviti Daily 111709

Whew! The back-to-back conference marathon is now over, and we can get back to our regular pharma news reporting. Here’s what’s up today…

TODAY’S NEWS

Everyone’s talking about the Zetia/Niaspan study – its results, its significance, its limitations. Bottom line – I can’t see how this can be good for Merck. More here. And Jim Edwards analyzes the damage control spin effort here.

Always a headline topic: female sexual desire treatments. The more you read about this drug (experimental ‘flibanserin’ from Boehringer-Ingelheim), however, the more you wonder if the purported effect will be worth the expense and the side effects.

BMS pushing Mead-Johnson out of the nest. It is amazing to me how drug companies cycle through periods where they diversify, then spin divisions off…

Novartis: half a dose of H1N1 vaccine may be enough. Now that’s how to increase vaccine supply!

If you’re going to blow the whistle, I guess it’s important to get on to the field of play! Whistleblower lawsuit against J&J dismissed.

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Is this drug a frog, or a prince? I dunno, but I like the picture…!

JUST FOR FUN

Dilbert: Who needs training?

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Impactiviti Daily 101609

Note: Impactiviti Daily is going to be published somewhat irregularly over the next 4 weeks, as we’re in the heart of “conference” season and I’m attending/speaking at several events over the next month. We’ll do our best to keep you updated!

TODAY’S NEWS

Pharma sales reps should be paid overtime? This is getting interesting – Novartis sales reps fighting for overtime pay just got a powerful ally. The US Department of Labor filed an amicus brief with a federal appeals court contending that a lower court was wrong to toss their lawsuit…more

AstraZeneca: KY says pony up $14.7M for marketing the spread – The ruling is the latest legal setback for AstraZeneca over the way its pricing. The drug maker was ordered by a jury in Alabama last year to pay $215 million for overcharging that state’s Medicaid program (back story). A judge later reduced that to $160 million, and AstraZeneca is appealing. In 2007, a federal judge in Boston ordered the drug maker to pay $12.9 million for overcharges, and an appeals court last month upheld the decision…more

BMS cuts 25% of Abilify sales force: any insiders have the actual number? – Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. cut the sales force for its second best-selling drug, the antipsychotic Abilify, six months after extending its contract to market the product with Tokyo-based Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. About 25 percent of the positions were eliminated, Brian Henry, a spokesman for New York-based Bristol-Myers, said yesterday in a telephone interview. The move happened this week, he said. He declined to give the number of jobs cut…more

Pfizer completes acquisition of Wyeth; cuts/closings coming; also slips updated logo into the mix!

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PLUS

Time. Talent. And Magic. Be sure to “set your own table” as you develop your career. From the StickyFigure blog.

JUST FOR FUN

Got orange wine?

Coming up this month:

Oct. 26-27 – Kru Research’s e-Patient Connections conference, Philadelphia, PA. I’ll be speaking and live-blogging. Here’s a discount code to save $500 off your registration: SW500

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Impactiviti Daily 100609

Now Available – My archived interview on Social Media in Pharma with Paul Chaney – feel free to forward the link (http://bit.ly/29kAoN) to your colleagues.

TODAY’S NEWS

BMS/Astra diabetes drug cleared in Europe – ONGLYZA is indicated as a once-daily 5 mg oral tablet dose in adult patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus to improve glycaemic control…more

FDA panel gives thumbs up to new GSK cancer drug –  A Food and Drug Administration panel Monday unanimously backed a proposed GlaxoSmithKline PLC drug for treating kidney cancer, despite agency concerns about a risk of severe liver injury. Glaxo is seeking FDA approval of the drug, pazopanib, to treat patients with advanced kidney cancer. The product was reviewed by outside medical experts who serve on the agency’s oncologic drugs advisory committee…more

Novartis CEO Vasella comes out swinging against animal rights terrorists. Good for him.

Physician smartphone usage – on the rise!

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Virtual Worlds and other on-line platforms for training or meetings. Impactiviti’s suite of partners can help you design and roll-out these advanced applications. Contact us (stevew at impactiviti dot com, or phone at 973-947-7429) to talk.

PLUS

Eighteen minutes that will rattle your world and challenge your assumptions about motivation in business. Dan Pink at TED – a great presenter, and very thought-provoking.

JUST FOR FUN

Dilbert on management evaluation.

Coming up this month:

Oct. 19-21 – eXL’s Digital Pharma conference, Bridgewater, NJ. This event will be quite progressive, with more of an informal “unconference” format to maximize interaction. I’ll be co-leading a pre-conference workshop on the 19th on social media, and live-blogging/Twittering. Here’s a discount code for 15% your registration: P615WOO

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Impactiviti Daily 082809

TODAY’S NEWS

Takeda to move forward with new alogliptin study – Takeda Pharmaceutical Co says it is all set to start an additional clinical trial demanded by US regulators on alogliptin, its investigational type 2 diabetes drug. The Japanese drugmaker noted that the US Food and Drug Administration has agreed to the study design for a cardiovascular outcomes trial, titled EXAMINE for alogliptin, a selective dipeptidyl peptidase IV inhibitor (DPP-4) inhibitor also known as SYR-322. The study will involve 5,400 type 2 diabetes patients at around 1,000 facilities in the USA, Europe and Asia…more

Genzyme leukemia drug study: hard to interpret – “The lack of a randomized study combined with the heterogeneous patient population regarding AML prognostic factors makes interpretation of the study results difficult.” Food and Drug Administration staff said in an analysis prepared for the panel, which meets Tuesday…more

Smoker’s lung treatment: coming soon from Forest and Nycomed? – An experimental once-daily tablet from Nycomed and Forest Laboratories improves lung function in people with “smoker’s lung” and may be a useful add-on to conventional inhaled drugs, experts said on Friday. Privately owned Swiss drugmaker Nycomed, which is working towards a multibillion-dollar flotation, hopes Daxas will reach the market in 2010 and believes it has blockbuster potential…more

Pharmas that got hurt by debt shenanigans, including BMS and Teva. And, a rash of drug heists.

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Younger folks just don’t want to take their cholesterol meds.

JUST FOR FUN

A Danger sign you don’t want to see…
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Today’s Top Pharma News 71309

Finally – FDA approves DSI/Lilly blood thinner Effient. Narrow indication with warnings, however – The approval makes Lilly‘s Effient the first real competition to the blood thinner Plavix, the world’s second-best selling medication made by Sanofi-Aventis and Bristol-Myers Squibb…more

Debate ignited over newer vs. older schizophrenia drugs – Schizophrenia patients given a cheap older drug are less likely to die prematurely than people on newer treatments, despite the older product’s well-known adverse side effects, Finnish researchers said on Monday…more

Sermo and AMA get into a public spat. Who represents doctors, really?

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