Pharm Exec 50 Hints to Rest of ’19

Many thanks to EvaluatePharma for compiling the data around this year’s Pharm Exec 50, which lists the top 50 global biopharmaceutical companies by sales. And thanks to our Managing Editor Michael Christel for putting details and context around the data, including recent or impending mergers, highlights around brands and their speculative futures, and insights around the current situation in R&D and clinical trials. Some of the

Lisa Henderson

themes that Christel notes make this month’s feature an excellent foundation for the remaining issues in the Pharmaceutical Executive content pipeline.

In August, Pharm Exec is highlighting Gene and Cell therapy and the associated challenges and hurdles in drug development, reimbursement, and commercialization, and will provide an update on FDA and EMA’s progress in constructing specific regulatory guidelines for these products. We will also feature comments from Jeff Marrazzo, CEO of Spark Therapeutics, during his fireside chat with Veeva Systems Co-Founder and President Matt Wallach at their recent commercial summit, which touches on pricing, patients, and the supply chain in the first year of Luxturna’s availability. 

Where Christel notes the supply chain challenges with CAR-T therapies, Marrazzo describes turning the one-time curative gene therapy of Luxturna’s supply chain “on its head” to bring the patient to the drug rather than bringing the drug to the patient. Clearly, CAR-T medicines and Luxturna, which targets inherited retinal blindness, are delivered completely differently, but this is where we are in drug delivery in 2019, signaling the winds of change. 

Our September issue is devoted to Product Launch, where we will highlight five brands that launched in 2018 and showcase their launch stories, as well as dive into the needs of the payer before and after launch, forecasting net present value on both brands and portfolios, and sales training needs for a brand launch or refresh. 

With clear attention on what these sales numbers mean to pharmaceutical companies outlined in the Pharm Exec 50, the September issue will be a must read. 

October will be a Tech Tour for the C-suite. As Christel notes, pharmaceutical companies are looking at ways to trim unwieldy processes through the use of technology. Now the number of processes touched by technology are numerous, as are the applications themselves, so the tour will serve to highlight the process, the underlying technology, and the pluses and minuses of each, all with eye on brevity and key takeaways. 

Another upcoming issue where June serves as a needed stepping stone is another milestone issue-our Annual Pipeline Report. Not to be outdone by sales numbers, the Pharm Exec 50 includes R&D spend, the representative investment in a company’s future. While Christel dives into the challenges of the R&D landscape, the Pipeline issue, which this year will be our 16th, looks at the therapeutic areas that are ripe with new scientific developments, as well as the ones that were promising, but have lost direction in failed trials. 

December is a wrap with Market Access. We don’t have a lot of detail here, as it’s still in development, but to be sure, there is no discussion around a prescription drug that doesn’t include formulary decisions, insurance coverage, pharmacy management, and patient access. Clearly, policy decisions around rebates will continue to be a part of this discussion, amid recent directions from the HHS proposed rule that would eliminate pharmaceutical manufacturer rebates to Medicare Part D plan sponsors and Medicaid managed care organizations. The rule is under a comment period, with no clear path in sight; suffice to say that PhRMA is on the pro side of eliminating rebates, while the PBMs are anti. Stay tuned. 

Now that 2019 is halfway over, and I just fast forwarded us to the start of a new decade, let’s come back to the present. Enjoy your summer and take Pharmaceutical Executive with you wherever your hopefully restful plans find you. 

Lisa Henderson is Editor-in-Chief of Pharm Exec. She can be reached at lhenderson@mmhgroup.com. Follow Lisa on Twitter: @trialsonline