You might have caught the editorial published today on PLoS Medicine by Fugh-Berman and Melnick, which decries rampant, greed-driven off-label promotion by pharmaceutical marketers. They suggest that the US government step in with tighter reigns and resist “gutting” current restrictions against off-label promotion.
The authors make their argument without providing evidence that off-label use of drugs [...]
You might have caught Pharmalot’s piece on the recently passed Mass. legislation that will codify pharmaceutical marketing to healthcare practitioners. The article describes Lilly CEO John Lechleiter’s response to the measure, which was harsh, essentially threatening to caught off Mass. from future Lilly R&D investments:
Such work is the backbone of research and development in biotechnology and [...]
BBC on NICE Final Appraisal Determination for TNF-alpha inhibitors in RA
My marketing colleagues’ have generally argued that there are limited funds for studies, and such funds ought not be spent studying the competition, unless the plan is to go head to head and whoop some ass. My argument in return has been that clinical trials [...]
Avastin Distribution Change - Open Letter
I read today’s WSJ Health Blog on Avastin thinking that Genentech had appeased eye specialists by maintaining distribution of Avastin to compounding pharmacies, but after reading the above open letter, I’m confused about Genentech’s actions in the recent past and about what it’s planning to do in the near future. [...]
Hey…sorry for the layoff time here at Pharma’s Cutting Edge. You can breathe a bit easier now that I’m back. Pun intended.
I’ve covered Exubera’s peri-approval and launch highlights in these pages, so now that Pfizer has pulled its marketing plug amidst ridiculously low sales of the first inhalable insulin I figured I’d a retrospective of those posts [...]
