Press Release

LONDON, November 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Rambeaux joined a host of other industry leaders at eyeforpharma's 9thannual Pharma Marketing Summit 2009 conference in Berlin, where several keythemes concerning market access and industry change emerged:

- Transforming business culture from product-focused to customer-centric

- Marketing to changing stakeholders

- Pipeline strategies

- Balancing digital with traditional brand strategies

One of the main topics discussed was the past importance of gettingregulatory agency approval for a new drug. This is somewhat in contrast totoday's healthcare environment, where governments increasingly determineprice and the availability of drugs to patients through formularydesignation. Market access has become the "fourth hurdle" in successfullybringing a drug to market.

To view the Multimedia News Release, please click:

http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/prne/eyeforpharma/39243

"Before a drug is even approved, we need to be sure market accessstrategies are in place so that we can ensure profitability and futurefunding of development programs and research," says Rajesh Gupta, former VPDermatology at Merck Serono and CEO of New Lab Life Sciences. "There's anopportunity, I believe, to engage earlier with organisations like NICE in theUK, to see what kind of endpoints would be useful to develop during phase IIIto allow them to appraise new drugs a bit more easily."

It's not just about getting regulatory approval anymore, says WolfgangWalter, senior director of the sales force at Nycomed. Walter says pharmasmust focus on meeting the needs of a growing number of stakeholders,including physicians, patients, governments and payers.

Eric Rambeaux, VP of business development and head of screening andanalytics at Solvay Pharmaceuticals, says his company has even reshaped itsorganisation with market access in mind, addressing silos of R&D, marketingand regulation to try to focus on the same goals.

"As an industry, we've been too focused on regulatory approval. It's justone step - although an important one. But putting a drug on the market isincreasingly about getting the right people together from very early indevelopment to make sure that the drugs we're pursuing don't simply addressthe easiest indication for the biggest market at the highest price, but thatit's the best compromise of these three areas."

Gupta, Walter and Rambeaux were amongst top executives from leadingpharmas, including Bayer, UCB, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Wyeth andRoche, who also joined wider debates surrounding the healthcare industry.

Keynote Speakers:

Ian Talmage, Senior VP Marketing, Bayer: Demonstrate successful resourceallocation for launch and re-launch teams and analyse various benchmarkmetrics.

Dr Jane Griffiths International VP, Europe North, Janssen-Cilag: AnalysedMarket Access implementation with better strategies around Pricing, HealthEconomics and Outcomes?

Veronique Toully, VP, UCB: Showed how to position the 3Ps -Patients, Payers and healthcare Providers - at the front end of the companystrategy.

To catch up on what you missed in Berlin- purchase the video recording:

https://secure.firstconf.com/pharma/marketing/register.htm

The next eyeforpharma event is scheduled for:

Market Access: 2nd-3rd March, Londonhttp://www.eyeforpharma.com/marketaccesseurope/

eMarketing: March 3rd-5th, Berlinhttp://www.eyeforpharma.com/emarketing/

SFE Europe: April 27th-29th, Barcelonahttp://www.eyeforpharma.com/sales/

  Contact: Kate Eversole VP Europe eyeforpharma T: +44(0)207-375-7594 E: keversole@eyeforpharma.com