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Of course, Digital Pharma and the drug Virtua are fantasy. But the digital technologies highlighted in the fictional news story are available today.

New Delhi, India-Anthrax, a disease that most commonly infects livestock, has been diagnosed at an increasing rate in humans in the southern states of India. The disease has been eradicated in the developed world but remains endemic in South India, mostly due to a lack of effective human and animal vaccines.

Beijing, China-Chinese scientists registered more than 110 patents on genes cloned last year from the human hypothalamus}pituitary}adrenal axis. They profiled the axis} gene expression, cloning more than 300 previously unknown genes discovered during its sequencing.

FDA proposals for expanding the pediatric study program include tax incentives and }transferable exclusivity.}

How can we use the Internet to communicate more effectively with wholesale customers and increase efficiencies by automating work processes? That intriguing question from our marketing group started the ball rolling, recalls Mike Conley, executive director of customer service at Novartis.

Sidney Taurel Takes His Global Team Beyond Prozac

Huntingdon, UK-Huntingdon Life Sciences, a contract research organization under siege by animal rights activists, secured its short-term future through a refinancing package offered by overseas institutions.

It}s generally accepted that pharmaceutical companies need to transform their business processes to remain competitive in the global economy. Shareholders, analysts, partners, suppliers, and customers consistently applaud announcements about information technology (IT) improvements. But managing the necessary changes to exploit the value of e-business initiatives is more problematic than many companies realize, requiring a focused management effort, within which is buried the stealth issue of e-business taxation.

Stirling, UK-Scotia became the first public UK biotechnology company to seek protection from creditors after the European Medicines Evaluation Agency rejected Foscan (temoporfin), the anticancer agent on which its fortunes were pinned.

United States-At this time last year, the United States} supply of tetanus vaccine was easily met by the two companies licensed to produce it there, Aventis Pasteur and Wyeth-Ayerst. But in June 2000, the latter ran into regulatory problems, and FDA seized thousands of substandard doses of acellular pertussis vaccine from the company}s Marietta, Pennsylvania, plant.

Marketers Face A Slew of New Challenges as FDA Examines the Rx-to-OTC Switch

Brazil}In 1994, the World Bank estimated that 1.2 million Brazilians would be HIV-positive in 2000.

Socioeconomic Reform in Japan Clears the Path for Pharma Companies' Success There.

}Drug costs continue to rise at an alarming rate. Two major reasons for the increasing costs are introductions of new drugs and direct-to-consumer advertising campaigns that have been effective in marketing expensive name brand drugs.}

Privacy isn}t your worst nightmare, but ignoring consumers} fears might be.

Americans are notoriously obsessed with health. In fact, more than 40 million go online to visit health sites, the vast majority seeking information about pharmaceuticals. As a result, drug manufacturers} product sites play a leading role in consumers} healthcare knowledge.

Surgeon General David Satcher announced a year-long effort to develop a national action plan for reducing the prevalence of obesity in the United States. Satcher said the process would be inclusive and collaborative, and would include open public comment periods, listening sessions, federal and non-federal dialogue, interactive workshops, and the formation of working groups to implement strategies.

The Department of Health and Human Services published new rules in the Federal Register to help more low-income Americans with high medical expenses gain healthcare coverage under Medicaid.

Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala today announced final regulations addressing self-referrals by physicians. The final regulations will protect beneficiaries and taxpayers from potentially abusive referral patterns, while making it easier for physicians and providers to comply with the law.

Why physicians are afraid to prescribe them and what you can do to set their minds at ease.

The Food and Drug Administration has proposed a new format for prescription drug labeling that will help reduce medical errors, which, according to the National Academy of Sciences, may be responsible for as many as 98,000 U.S. deaths annually. According to the FDA, this new, user-friendly format will reduce errors in drug prescribing.

In her two years as a sales rep for Mountain View, CA-based Alza Corp., Suzy Porter has discovered that seeing results in patients' lives is her job's most rewarding aspect. A year ago, Porter established a support group for patients with interstitial cystitis, a disease that often evades diagnosis, can be left untreated for years and can severely disrupt day-to-day life. Its symptoms resemble "a constant urinary tract infection that is excruciatingly painful."

A multidisciplinary group of scientists has declared that osteoarthritis, the most common form of arthritis, is "surprisingly complex," but has outlined a number of new approaches to its understanding, prevention and treatment.

During the year ending September 2000, urologists wrote 25.3 million retail prescriptions, 5% more than in the previous 12-month period, according to Newtown, PA-based Scott-Levin's Source™ Prescription Audit.

This year, according to the Chicago-based American Medical Association's AMA Foundation, the U.S. healthcare system will unnecessarily spend about $73 billion in extra doctor visits, hospitalizations and longer hospital stays because patients didn't understand what their doctor said or how to take their medication appropriately.

As much as 13% of the current $337 billion global pharmaceutical market in the U.S. is accounted for by sales of products incorporating a drug delivery system, according to a 200-page report published by Epsom, England-based CMR International. However, despite the surge in demand for novel drug delivery technologies in recent years, the report pinpoints that the drug delivery industry is facing consolidation and could be dominated by a small number of multi-technology companies in the near future.

Your paper planner is full to bursting. Maybe it's time to simplify your life with a personal digital assistant.

For the sixth consecutive year, New York-based Pfizer Inc.'s pharmaceutical sales organization placed first overall in Newtown, PA-based healthcare consulting firm Scott-Levin's survey of U.S. physicians in nine core specialty groups: general/family practitioners, internists, pediatricians, obstetrician/gynecologists, psychiatrists, general surgeons, gastroenterologists, cardiologists and otorhinolaryngologists.

An effective salesperson needs to know how to master the subtle cues of body language before he or she can be successful.

During our conversation, Reeve pushes an even broader agenda: getting pharmaceutical companies to realize the huge market potential in spinal-cord research for a host of neurological conditions. He implores companies to put their attention, and their investment, into enterprises that are creating breakthroughs in new technologies promising wide therapeutic application.