William Looney

Finding the correct coordinates for big Pharma's endless cycle of re-positioning is just as important as a winning scientific hand, writes William Looney.

Therapeutic specialization, competitive differentiation, and a finely-tailored value proposition are creating a new drug world of bespoke market niches-and infinite future possibilities for the best of this year’s Pharma 50.

Pharm Exec’s Brand of the Year award is itself a brand with staying power - our first recipient was Merck’s Gardasil papillomavirus vaccine.

Diabetes, it can be said, is one of the unpleasant side-effects of being human.

Recent deal making signals that the rehabilitation of big Pharma has entered a new phase aligned around a new strategic thesis, writes Pharm Exec Editor-in-Chief William Looney.

Pharm Exec's Brand of the Year recipients for 2014 are multiple sclerosis treatment Copaxone and KORLYM for diseases driven by excess production of the metabolic hormone, cortisol. We profile the journey of both drugs.

With a new name and a veteran CEO, Deborah Dunsire, at the helm, FORUM Pharmaceuticals's flag is waving high in the increasingly solitary struggle against CNS disease.

Monday’s decision by India’s Supreme Court to deny a patent for the top-selling oncologic drug Glivec took nearly a decade of litigation to resolve – but the implications in and beyond India are both immediate and lasting.

Three examples from Pharm Exec's coverage this month show that, in our industry, there are always two sides-at least-to every question.

Despite its importance as a vital indicator of overall population health status, cancer suffers from an information deficit – particularly when considered from a global perspective.

Population health is the foundation for much of what is truly new in US health reform. Pharm Exec talks to Dr. David Nash, Dean of the Jefferson Medical University School of Population Health.

Regardless of how you define it, partnership is also an institutional necessity as big Pharma adjusts to disruptive changes in the way health services are financed and delivered. A revolution in the making, where legislation combined with market forces as well as community and stakeholder advocacy are adding fresh momentum to a population-based approach to health practice. Population health focuses on a system built around three pillars of care: preventive care, primary care, and coordinated care, all driven by a single performance metric, which is value, as evidenced through quality and outcomes. Executing around this integrative model depends entirely on partnerships, especially with non-traditional players like the physician assistant.

The Myelin Repair Foundation is more than just a policy precedent - it’s also emerging as the stimulus behind a future cure for MS.

To mark its 25th year in recognizing female leadership in the tough competitive ranks of biopharma, the Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association (HBA) is opting for a breakout triple play.

Millennium Takeda's new president, Anna Protopapas, explains the life choices that brought her from Cyprus to Cambridge-and a lead position in the hotly contested search to make cancer a treatable disease.

Millennium Takeda’s new president, Anna Protopapas, explains to Pharm Exec’s William Looney the life choices that brought her from Cyprus to Cambridge.

Millennium Takeda's new president, Anna Protopapas, explains the life choices that brought her from Cyprus to Cambridge-and a lead position in the hotly contested search to make cancer a treatable disease.

Pharm Exec begins its 34th year with a feature on Russia's ambitious plans to build a homegrown biopharma business. Back in 1980, the biotech industry did not exst. Drugs were still classified as chemicals, developed from the random screening of many thoughts.

Back in 1980, the biotech industry did not exist.

Two weeks in and the New Year already seems old. Yet members of our Pharm Exec Editorial Advisory Board are still eager to share their top of line predictions on trends that will shape the industry’s business and reputational assets.

Dominating the frontier of medicines discovery is a simple, endlessly challenging question: if not a drug, then what? Industry science has evolved from the chemical roots of the small molecule to the biologics synthesized from living organisms, but the delivery mechanism – pill or injectable – is basically the same.

The pursuit of excelMedal_4mpix__MG_0199-150x150lence in biopharmaceutical innovation in Russia has never had a sponsor-until now. Prix Galien International, a global network of Nobel laureates in medicines, established its 18th country beachhead in Moscow earlier this year, culminating in a historic first: an October 24 awards dinner to recognize the best in new drug research as well as innovation in biotechnology and pharmaceutical products.

For Patrick Lindsay, providing decision support across the full product life cycle is no stretch goal-it's today's fact of life

New and emerging technologies are noteworthy not simply for the excellent science behind them but also for the way they expose those raw edges of the industry's business model.

Pharm Exec convenes a diverse panel of experts to identify the key markers of common ground: its time, people, and money against that greatest intangible-hope.

New and emerging technologies are noteworthy not simply for the excellent science behind them but also for the way they expose those raw edges of the industry’s business model. In biopharma today, disruptive changes to the model are being driven by two forces.

Big Pharma is quietly stepping up to provide critical supplies of essential medicines, other health equipment, and skilled local personnel to areas of the Philippines devastated by Typhoon Haiyan this month. Although industry operations in the Philippines appear largely intact, most companies are working through global humanitarian aid organizations due to the logistical challenges created by the collapse of infrastructure on the ground.

Pharm Exec's two key features this month illustrate the strategic contradiction facing today's industry.

The implosion of the Affordable Care Act’s vaunted healthcare.gov benefit enrollment process has obscured a far more critical issue for Big Pharma: how much leeway do companies have in promoting durable brand affiliations among the potentially millions of new patients with subsidized access to new medicines?

Compliance rules under the US Physician Payments Sunshine Act have been criticized for the excruciating level of detail demanded from individual company submissions.