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It's not always obvious just who is reponsible for the various steps of pharmacovigilance.

Over the past 20 years, drug companies went from having carte blanche to set drug prices to operating in an ever more tightly controlled environment. Instead of doctors calling the shots, government and private payers are becoming increasingly vocal about which drugs they will and will not cover. Frustrated patients, in turn, are getting anxious about their out-of-pocket costs and access to the medicines they need.

With legislation pending in Congress, generics makers begin investments in follow-on protein drugs.

PharmRep Subscriber Kit

Class action suits across the country challenge firms to pay overtime.

Promising drugs failed to deliver at this year's American College of Cardiology meeting.

High-profile, quick-growing IBS drug shelved because of cardio risks.

New technology could revolutionize meningitis strategy in the developing world.

PHARM EXEC ASIA PACIFIC MEDIA KIT

April 2007 CE

Despite efforts to increase diversity, the stark reality is that today's leading pharmaceutical companies are still run by men.

The acquisition of Eczacibasi's generic unit gives Zentiva a sales force of more than 500, manufacturing capacity of more than 400 million dosage units per year, and entry into the rapidly growing Turkish pharma market.

If the uk's office of fair trading (OFT) is to be believed, Brits are overpaying for their medicines to the tune of ?500 million a year. That's the conclusion the OFT came to in its long-awaited report on the Pharmaceutical Pricing Regulation Scheme (PPRS), the arcane method by which drug prices are set in the United Kingdom.

Value-based medicine is tremendously helpful if you've got a good drug. It could guide R&D, price decisions, and marketing. But most companies don't have all the clear winners.

There are whistleblowers who bring wrongdoing to light. But there are also whistleblowers whose main complaint is "I should have won." FDA seems to suffer from a serious oversupply of the second sort.

All the hoopla about Medicare drug prices is overshadowing the real action in pharmaceutical pricing: a less-noticed exercise that aims to reduce reimbursement for medicines purchased by state Medicaid programs. Retail pharmacists say the proposed changes will put them out of business, and pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) fear an end to discount negotiations.

Inappropriate care may account for 25 to 30 percent of the US healthcare bill. Former NEJM editor Arnold Relman used to write that if we could eliminate the unnecessary care, we could save enough to insure all the uninsured.

December 2006 Sworn Statement

Changing nature of disease, market pressures shape how companies communicate about HIV drugs.

PE Pharma Invitational invite

Costs of pediatric clinical trials are on the rise -- but companies forge ahead.

No surprises here: Medicare, emerging markets boost drug sales--but mostly generics.

Merger with Organon strengthens late-stage pipeline.

A second state is looking to hold down drug costs by going after data collectors.

Drug giant streamlines professional advertising but remains coy about sales force headcount.

Swiss drug maker gears up to launch first in class Tekturna.

Pharma is forging more partnerships with technology companies to extend patent life.

Third regulatory delay highlights difficulty of developing weight loss products.

HRT franchise grows despite lawsuits, new safety fears.

March 2007 CE