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August 2003 CE.

When I was a kid, I remember reading magazine articles that set out to determine the worth of the human body-not its personal value, or its ability to produce valuable labor, but just the market value of the chemicals that composed it. The figure I remember hearing was $1.98. Pocket change for the crown of creation.

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Before Botox became a popular beauty treatment, Allergan was just a small ophthalmic business that made prescription eye therapies and contact lens care products.

Since the pharma industry uploaded its very first websites in 1994, marketers' perception of the web has moved from intriguing novelty, to must-have status symbol, to vital communications channel for both patients and physicians. Yet even as product managers devote more resources to their brand-name product websites, many still commit fundamental errors with alarming frequency.

Innovative products, and the research and development teams that produce them, are pharma's life blood. So it's no surprise that, according to PE's 2003 Top 50 Pharma, the largest 20 pharma companies alone spent $45.5 billion on R&D.

As pharma sales forces grow and their productivity declines, the question on everyone's mind is, "Has the traditional detail lost its punch?" The answer is unequivocally no. The sales force is still the best medium for forging valued and trusted relationships with targeted physicians.

Now that patents on several blockbuster drugs have expired, the industry-feeling the pinch-has focused its attention on intellectual property. Because every additional month of market exclusivity can mean an extra $50 million or more in revenue, pharma companies have gone to great lengths to block the entry of generic competition.

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July 2003 CE.

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Thanks to managed care's efforts to steer patients into the least intensive treatment settings, primary care practitioners (PCPs) play an increasingly important role in prescribing.

How should drug companies and physicians interact? And if something is wrong with the relationship, who's to blame?

Paramus Road in New Jersey is a construction zone, filled with cars edging their way past lots slated for shopping plazas, food joints, and industrial office parks. Along that thoroughfare-near small pharma companies like Faulding and Synaptic and just a few miles away from Roche-lies Yama-nouchi Pharma America (YPA). Like the environment unfolding around it, YPA is in the process of becoming.

Looking back on 2003, biotech industry insiders and the analysts who cover them would agree that the opening line from Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities aptly describes the current biotech market: "It was the best of times, it was the worst of times."

Pharma companies seem to have forgotten one key lesson: Blockbusters are made, not discovered. Few drugs achieve top sales based on their initial formulation and indications.

Partnerships between pharmaceutical (Rx) and diagnostic (Dx) companies are difficult to achieve because most managers don't understand what it takes to make them work.

June 2003 CE.

Point a finger at a map of the United States and try to find a state that's not competing to attract pharma and biotech business. It's nearly impossible. The story is the same in Europe and Asia. Around the world, countries, regions, and cities are trying to build their economies, and the life sciences are a key element in their plans.

Pfizer Chairman and CEO Hank McKinnell sees the company's $58 billion blockbuster acquisition of Pharmacia as the key to Pfizer's leadership in pharmaceutical markets around the globe.

Even among industry insiders, company reputations are hard-earned and subject to change. Rating Research's (RRC) second annual Reputation Strength Study of the Pharmaceutical Industry surveyed financial analysts and industry senior executives to see how 19 companies stack up against each other and to see how their overall reputations changed from last year.

Patient recruitment for clinical trials is one of the most significant bottlenecks in drug development. As a result, several organizations have called for the establishment of recruitment best practices, beginning in 2000 with the Office of the Inspector General's (OIG) report on recruiting human subjects and most recently in a Clinical Research Roundtable report published in the March 12, 2003 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).

During the next ten years, big pharma companies will need to launch two products a year to generate 5 percent annual growth, five products a year to hit 10 percent growth, and nine products a year to meet a 15 percent annual growth target. Clearly, the stakes are high.

My train reading this week has been Protecting America's Health, Philip J. Hilts' enlightening history of the Food and Drug Administration. It's a book with a strong sense of how politics, people, and the uncontrollable flow of events conspire to shape institutions. It's also a good read, thanks to the author's fine eye for anecdote. Over and over, Hilts selects just the right story to capture the essence of an era in the agency's history.

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A powerful new tool is available to FDA through a first-of-its-kind cooperative research and development agreement (CRADA) between FDA and EduNeering, a developer of computer-based compliance training systems.

Contrary to popular belief, physicians still can't retrieve the full medical history of every patient who walks into their offices. Nor can they zap prescriptions through a clearinghouse that shows whether patients are eligible for coverage and reviews all medications they are taking to forestall drug?drug interactions.

According to many legislators and the media, pharma companies, abetted by Madison Avenue, lead the corporate villain list, just below auditors and errant CEOs.