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When Kimberly Farrell, currently president of Unlimited Performance, a training consultation company based in Highland Park, IL, was asked by the National Society of Pharmaceutical Sales Trainers – now the Society of Pharmaceutical and Biotech Trainers - to put together a workshop for the society's 2000 meeting, she immediately designed a questionnaire for top female executives, networked to identify top talent, and wrote and called female executives to interview them. The answers to her queries were presented in the workshop. "The turnout and response were so positive," said Farrell, "I was asked by the board of SPBT to facilitate a similar workshop in 2001. I redesigned the workshop to include a live panel of three top industry vice presidents to speak to our membership about career strategies, challenges, successes and insights."

The rates of new cancer cases and deaths for all cancers combined continue to decline in the United States, according to the "Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1973-1998, Featuring Cancers with Recent Increasing Trends," which was released by the North American Association of Central Cancer Registries, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the American Cancer Society and the National Cancer Institute. The report was published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute (vol. 93, no. 11).

A new survey by Rochester, NY-based Harris Interactive reveals that public perception of the pharmaceutical, health insurance, managed care and hospital industries continues to decline. The survey, which was conducted by telephone among a nationwide sample of 1,014 adults, measures how many people believe particular industries are doing a good or bad job of serving their customers.

Data from a recent survey of patients with diabetes suggest that the vast majority of them are unaware that they are at risk for anemia and the health complications that can result.

Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura has signed a bill that will allow hospitals, doctors and healthcare professionals across the state to share patient safety information.

The 50 most heavily prescribed drugs for seniors have risen in price, on average, at more than twice the rate of inflation, according to a new report issued by Washington-based Families USA. The report examined drug price increases through January of this year.

New York-based Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. has announced a definitive agreement to purchase Wilmington, DE-based DuPont Pharmaceuticals Co. Bristol-Myers Squibb hopes the acquisition will further strengthen the company's medicines business.

People who get migraines experience a decreased quality of life - not solely from their migraines, but also from the fear of future migraines, according to the "Life Impact Survey" of almost 4,000 headache sufferers.

Following what he refers to as "a very smooth leadership transition," Amgen's new chairman and CEO Kevin Sharer is shaking things up. In January, he created two new executive vice-president positions and went outside the company to fill them.

London, United Kingdom-The UK OTC trade association supports the Community Pharmacy Action Group (CPAG) in its decision to withdraw a court case regarding the price-fixing of OTC drugs after the judge said there was little evidence that abolition of price maintenance would harm community pharmacists. The withdrawal brings an end to a long-running court battle pitting the pharmaceutical industry against an equally powerful corporate enemy, the supermarkets.

Carol Nacy, PHD, Has Invested Her Expertise - and her money - to fight the devastating tuberculosis epidemic.

The time is ripe to further a pharmaceutical career in the United States. The industry is full of promising opportunities for people eager to contribute and advance.

Democrats are determined to enact legislation that will ensure patient access to certain services and benefits from managed care plans.

Basel, Switzerland -Novartis plans to provide its malaria drug, Coartem (artemether/lumefantrin), at cost to developing countries in partnership with the World Health Organization (WHO). The effort is only the latest in a series of moves intended to increase access to essential medicines after Big Pharma’s South Africa debacle.

Basel, Switzerland—Roche, which recently slashed its work force by 3,000, maintains that it will remain independent even after the sale of 20 percent of the company to Novartis. Franz Humer, the troubled company’s chairman, says the founding family supports Roche’s strategy.

The digital revolution is knocking at the doors of the clinical research industry, and CROs are increasingly, if reluctantly, letting it in. Although the biotech industry revels in the promise of wireless solutions, Internet applications, and genomic discoveries, CROs have largely shunned opportunities for technological improvements and remain insulated from such advances in other health sectors.

European Union-The European Commission’s ban on GlaxoSmith–Kline’s dual pricing policy in Spain halts one of Big Pharma’s attempts to prevent parallel imports in Europe.

Is the pharmaceutical industry surrounded by its critics? Can the industry be liberated from the moral bind others want to impose on it? Those are questions I asked and attempted to answer in two recent editorials (PE April and June 2001). Actually, the simple answer was yes to both. But other answers prove more complex.

Epsom, Surrey, United Kingdom—Pharmaceutical companies struggle to be taken seriously when they talk of facing pressures. A quick look at the bottom line often suggests they are overstating their worries. But new evidence shows they are being squeezed by generic competition and falling R&D output.

Given the colossal revenue generated by just one blockbuster drug, it's no surprise that R&D always finds its way to the top of management's agenda. But now more than ever, pharmaceutical companies can't thrive on discovery alone. Price pressure from the public and private sectors drives companies to create savings through operational efficiencies. One of the biggest areas for financial gain"better management of capital assets"is often overlooked.

The perception of the Internet as a useful resource has steadily increased among physicians since 1997, according to a study released by the Chicago-based American Medical Association.

Physicians tell what it takes to open their doors.

A study sponsored by Cyberonics Inc., Houston, TX, shows that patients with treatment-resistant depression are very costly to the healthcare system due to extremely high use of both depression-related and general medical services. The study analyzed medical and prescription claims data from the 1995-1998 MEDSTAT MarketScan® Databases to evaluate healthcare utilization and costs of patients with treatment-resistant depression.

A new report released by the Washington-based National Institute for Health Care Management reveals that spending on retail outpatient prescription drugs rose 18.8% from 1999 to 2000, from $111.1 billion to $131.9 billion. The report attributes the bulk of this growth to "increased expenditures among a relatively small number of drugs and therapeutic categories of drugs." The report also noted an increase in the number of prescriptions overall and a shift toward the use of costlier drugs.

The Food and Drug Administration Modernization Act is working just as Congress intended for the benefit of patients, according to Tim Franson of Indianapolis-based Lilly Research Laboratories, who testified in front of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health on behalf of the Washington-based Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America.

Information consumers find on Web sites is generally accurate, but usually incomplete and hard for many readers to understand, according to a report featured in the Journal of the American Medical Association (vol. 285, no. 20).

Study authors Asbjorn Hrobjartsson and Peter C. Gotzsche looked at 114 clinical trials - covering 7,500 patients with 40 different clinical conditions - in which patients were randomly assigned to placebo or no treatment. For the purposes of the study, the placebo could be "pharmacologic (e.g., a tablet), physical (e.g., a manipulation) or psychological (e.g., a conversation)." The authors found that "as compared with no treatment, placebo had no significant effect on binary outcomes, regardless of whether these outcomes were subjective or objective."

A recent survey commissioned by Atlanta-based Consortium Health Plans, which comprises 14 member Blue Cross Blue Shield plans operating in 26 states and the District of Columbia, found that health benefits play an increasingly important role in Americans' employment choices and job retention. Furthermore, for the first time, almost two-thirds of employees surveyed said they were willing to pay extra for key services, including continued access to prescription drugs. Employees are deeply committed to passage of The Patients' Bill of Rights, to the point of being willing to pay extra for it. Employees indicated that government involvement in healthcare reform is very important; however, they are split on whether the new administration will be successful in bringing about reform.

When presented with a list of products and services and asked what they would most like to find in the pharmacy of the future, 30% of respondents chose an on-site nurse practitioner, according to the AmeriSource Index, a survey of 1,034 consumers nationwide released by AmeriSource Health Corp., Valley Forge, PA. When asked what their second choice was, nutrition counseling and a nurse practitioner tied at 15%. A specialist on different diseases came in next at 14%. Other top contenders for second place were kiosks with medical or diagnostic information, at 12%, and weight loss counseling, at 8%.

The National Cholesterol Education Program has issued new clinical practice guidelines on the prevention and management of high cholesterol in adults. The guidelines are the first major update from the NCEP in nearly a decade.