Pharmaco - Articles

Is GSK a thrusting new pharma co or an ageing dinosaur? Pfast Forward went to the UK HQ to find out.
HAVING BEEN INVITED to the UK Pharma headquarters for GlaxoSmithKline, Pfast Forward thought it appropriate to gather the industry’s general perceptions about the new organisation. Taking the scientific approach of asking the opinion of friends and colleagues, two distinct camps formed. On one side I listened to views, which likened the new company to the thoughts a parent may have over their two-year-old child, namely a mixture of excitement, pride and with most of the teething problems over, rewarding. The alternative opinion painted the company as too large, dependent upon patent expiring crutches and only capable of paying lip service to modernising. To be honest I was in camp two but ke…

Despite significant initial interest in angiogenesis inhibitors, they have failed to live up to expectations and are yet to be approved by the FDA for cancer treatment. However, there are a number of
Despite significant initial interest in angiogenesis inhibitors, they have failed to live up to expectations and are yet to be approved by the FDA for cancer treatment. However, there are a number of drugs in phase III clinical trials that should finally gain US approval. Iressa and Thalomid look set to demonstrate the potential of the angiogenesis inhibitor class and possibly reap the reward. As a result of the 1970s discovery that angiogenesis is implicated in tumor growth, anti-antigenic, designed to block the formation of new blood vessels thereby 'starving' the tumor's supply of oxygen…

Lets have a look at the healthcare market and some of the things that are changing within it and then assess the impact of the changes on companies’ ability to achieve effective recruitment.
The world is changing. Recruitment in healthcare is moving into new, uncharted areas. Everyone will have to learn techniques to be able to recruit in the new labour market place. Just how true are these [recently] frequently heard remarks and will we all have to do new things and learn new techniques? Lets have a look at the healthcare market and some of the things that are changing within it and then assess the impact of the changes on companies’ ability to achieve effective recruitment. There is now doubt that the number of companies operating in the sector is going down as mergers/acquisitions c…

Increasingly it seems that locational flexibility may be an essential point to mention on the CV for a career-minded corporate animal in the Life Sciences sector.
Clients taking part in a recent PiR survey on the European recruitment market were using words like “geographical flexibility”, “career mobility” and one even coined the phrase “Euromobile” to describe their ideal worker of the future. What does this mean then for professionals looking for new opportunities and for businesses searching for talent in Europe? Increasingly it seems that locational flexibility may be an essential point to mention on the CV for a career-minded corporate animal in the Life Sciences sector. There is no getting away from the fact that companies are looking for a new breed of worker who will move across…

Pfizer's acquisition of Pharmacia for nearly $60 billion in stock has created the largest pharmaceutical company in the world with annual revenues of $48 billion.
Pfizer's acquisition of Pharmacia for nearly $60 billion in stock has created the largest pharmaceutical company in the world with annual revenues of $48 billion. This acquisition comes at a time when the pharmaceuticals and biotech companies are under increased scrutiny and are facing unprecedented challenges. The general public is clamoring for reduced drug prices, and the general malaise affecting corporate America has sparked a closer watch from regulatory authorities. On the other hand, most major pharmaceutical companies have become saddled with declining research productivity, directly affecting their product pipeline. Wit…

More than nine out of ten physicians say they will likely participate in online pharmaceutical drug detailing presentations in the next few months
More than nine out of ten physicians say they will likely participate in online pharmaceutical drug detailing presentations in the next few months and rate the Internet as an 'extremely positive' tool for receiving continuing education programs, according to a survey of doctors conducted by RxCentric. The findings, which were presented this week at the SG Cowen Health Care Conference in Boston, MA, underscore an increasing preference by doctors for Internet-based sales presentations and point out a significant cost savings opportunity for pharmaceutical companies in how they market new drugs. "As the number of new prescription drugs develope…

The recent reporting season for the major drug developers passed without much in the way of commotion and histrionics. Their results were widely flagged beforehand but then that is the advantage of re
AstraZeneca (LSE: AZN) was the first of the big three to please with its first-quarter numbers. It reported an 18% jump in earnings to £1.3b on sales of £4.4b. GlaxoSmithKline (LSE: GSK) also pleased with its 14% hike in first-quarter earnings to £1.6b and 6% improvement in revenues to £5.1b. However the star of the show was the smallest of the three large cap medicine makers, Shire Pharmaceuticals (LSE: SHP). The company delighted with its 40% jump in earnings to £54m on sales of £169m. Down in the midcaps the full year results from former FTSE 100 company Celltech Group (LSE: CCH) were also…

Our aim is to reduce the cost per hire and time to fill positions whilst continuing to source high quality candidates. At GSK, e-Recruitment is more than posting adverts on the Internet. It is about l
After internal recruitment methods have been exhausted, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) uses the Internet to recruit its people before using more traditional methods. Our aim is to reduce the cost per hire and time to fill positions whilst continuing to source high quality candidates. At GSK, e-Recruitment is more than posting adverts on the Internet. It is about leveraging a wide range of web-based technology. The e-Recruitment team source candidates, promote the GSK on-line brand, develop on-line recruitment strategies, research and evaluate web information for all of the UK-based businesses. Thes…

When AstraZeneca held an important press conference in Amsterdam less than a month after the World Trade Centre attacks, only ten reporters turned up. But their PR agency wasn’t worried.
When AstraZeneca held an important press conference in Amsterdam less than a month after the World Trade Centre attacks, only ten reporters turned up. But their PR agency wasn’t worried. The picturesque Dutch city may have been unusually quiet, but 33 key industry journalists from nine countries were flexing their fingers and dialing up to participate in the event over the internet. And interested parties from all over the world were not only able to watch the live results of the first head to head clinical trial between Nexium and lansoprazole, but also participate in a real time question and answer sess…

An enterprising postgrad recently increased traffic to his very dry semiconductor physics website by posting naked shots of a young pop idol. But latest figures suggest pharmas don’t need Britney’s b
An enterprising postgrad recently increased traffic to his very dry semiconductor physics website by posting naked shots of a young pop idol. But latest figures suggest pharmas don’t need Britney’s boobs to grab men’s attention. They could try testicles… Men’s health related terms feature high up the hit lists of all the main search engines and it seems the ailing gentleman is now more likely to reach for his mouse than a bottle of Lucozade. The age of the informed patient is upon us and men in particular are increasingly switched on to the internet for health information. Traditionally…

Don’t take this as a come-on, but I think we could really benefit from getting up close and personal. Over the Internet. No, I’m not inviting you to enter into a dubious chat room dialogue, but to hav
Don’t take this as a come-on, but I think we could really benefit from getting up close and personal. Over the Internet. No, I’m not inviting you to enter into a dubious chat room dialogue, but to have a think about your company website. Personalisation has been an Internet buzzword since the end of the 90s when it was pioneered by book-seller Amazon amongst others. The online-trader’s ground-breaking take on the technology was to track clusters of titles purchased by the same individuals and then make recommendations to others users based on this knowledge. Amazon had a retail revolution on…

When setting up your online marketing plan ensure that search engine optimisation is not an afterthought to your banner ad spends. They are a primary means to drive traffic to your website and fairly
The increasingly untenable limitations placed on direct to consumer advertising of prescription drugs will doubtless soon be addressed by the powers that be, whether at national or European level and deregulation, when it happens will lead to an explosion in the number of product and therapy area websites being produced by the pharmaceutical industry. But in an online environment already crowded with millions of websites and little to no policing, how can marketing departments ensure that patients searching for the best cure for GORD ever stumble upon their experimental new drug megacurealot w…

EU Health.net is a development of the well-known Blackwell Masters health information database. It has been enhanced to provide information specifically on the activities of the NHS and a major additi
The trend towards healthcare planning in Europe is providing a level of visibility and market intelligence that was previously unavailable. EU Health.net is a development of the well-known Blackwell Masters health information database. It has been enhanced to provide information specifically on the activities of the NHS and a major addition is the insight into policies and initiatives occurring in the European healthcare arena. It covers a total of 120 categories (full list available on request) including cardiology & stroke, cancer, mental health, diabetes, HIV & sexual health, res…

The sampling process is repeated on a daily basis across the pharmaceutical industry with billions of dollars expended each year.
In the year 2000, US pharmaceutical companies spent 16 billion dollars supporting the distribution and marketing of prescription drug samples to physicians. A full 50% of those costs went directly to communicating the value of the products and another 26% went to the detailing, distribution, and management of the samples. Over the course of a typical month, the average pharmaceutical sales representative will visit 150 physicians, distribute thousands of packages of drug samples, obtain FDA required signatures on 150 sample distribution forms, receive scores of new sample cartons to their home-based office, and expend as much as 25% of their time tediously man…

In turbulent economic times, the need to streamline businesses and control costs is always of paramount importance. This is true whether your strategic mission is to be a low-cost producer or an inno
In turbulent economic times, the need to streamline businesses and control costs is always of paramount importance. This is true whether your strategic mission is to be a low-cost producer or an innovator in your industry. Top executives have often turned to Supply Chain Management in an attempt to achieve these goals. But how do you get past the rhetoric of Supply Chain Management theory that so often is populated with clichés and little real-world action? The solution is not to focus simply on the theory or tactics of Supply Chain Management. These are well known. Rather, we must als…

The race is on, but while some companies try to get it right first time, others are just trying everything while mistakes are still an option. The difficulties lie in the choice: today there are sever
The race to effective e-business solutions is on. Case studies of successes and failures are multiplying E-business conferences for the pharma industry are proliferating and shifting from being about theoretical benefits to dealing with real case study, an example of how the market has matured in the past year. A Cap Gemini Ernst and Young/Insead survey published in May 2001 estimates that the Industry has invested between 0.5% and 1% of sales (approximately $2 billion) on e-business over the past year, with mixed results. The majority of respondents (70%) agree that the biggest impact will…

The pharmaceutical industry, like many others is guilty of being too forgiving of email’s shortcomings. We would never accept misdirection or non-delivery of a package delivered by a courier so why so
With ever mounting competition it is becoming increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies to leverage new technologies as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Indeed, a recent study by Accenture Research in the US showed that eighty percent of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies believed Internet-related technologies could not only speed up time to market, but also reduce drug development costs and administration. There is little doubt that email has been one of these key technologies. It has benefited a number of business processes across the industry, speeding up comm…

Statistics, properly audited and interpreted, allow you to establish hundreds of useful pieces of information about your customers after careful filtering from the enormous mass of information that is
It is a classic paradox of the new economy that a media that arose from the ground up offering free, democratic information access to all also provides companies and governments with an unparalleled opportunity to play at Big Brother. Putting aside these issues though, internet statistics are the single most vital aid to those responsible for websites. Statistics, properly audited and interpreted, allow you to establish hundreds of useful pieces of information about your customers after careful filtering from the enormous mass of information that is the logfile. The web is the ultimate weapon…

Some areas of the pharma industry are clearly at the cutting edge of new technology. But especially in Europe, this hasn't translated to eBusiness efforts in the sector - it's far behind other indust
Some areas of the pharma industry are clearly at the cutting edge of new technology. But especially in Europe, this hasn't translated to eBusiness efforts in the sector - it's far behind other industries in computerization and automation, particularly in Europe. So why are European pharma not capitalizing on the savings IT can bring, and when will this change? John Band investigates... What images does the pharmaceutical industry conjure up for you? Many people would see a hotbed of new technology. Perhaps a white-coated scientist, using the latest high-tech equipment to analyze the new drug…

E-business is turning from hype to reality and is starting to become that most crucial of things, measurable. Pharmaceutical companies must orient their businesses to take into account the formidable
A few years ago, the internet was booming and any idea or even word starting with "e" was seemingly worth millions. The new economy was here to stay.... Thousands of "start-ups" mushroomed. A year later, the bubble burst and "start-ups" began disappearing... Does that mean that the Internet won't deliver on its promises? Certainly not. But the reality is that the way to invest in the internet has changed. The gold rush has stopped. Pharmaceutical companies are moving away from the model where they outsourced work to pure dot.coms. Instead, they are moving toward a Clicks and Mortar model, wher…