Honors and Awards GCPj Bestows Honors The Global Clinical Practices Journal (GCPj) recognized several companies in 2009 for providing excellence in the clinical trials industry: • Chiltern’s Katie Huffine, BSN, MSN, won Project Manager of the Year. • Cognizant and AstraZeneca won the Clinical Research Excellence (CRE) Data Management Team of the Year Award. • i3’s i3Cube clinical trial process and data management software received the Clinical Research Excellence Award in the Best Technological Development in Clinical Trials — Communication Systems category. • Kendle’s TrialEAS was recognized as Best Technological Development in Clinical Trials — Software Solution. • PRA International was awarded the Most Successful Early Phase Trial. Infinity Leader Named Best Executive at Stevie Awards Infinity Pharmaceuticals’ Adelene Q. Perkins, president and chief business officer, was named the 2009 Best Executive: Non- Services Business at the 6th Annual Stevie Awards for Women in Business. Ms. Perkins was selected from more than 1,100 nominees across several categories. In 2008, Ms. Perkins was a finalist for the Lifetime Achievement Award. inVentiv Companies Win CLIO Awards Four inVentiv Health companies won top honors at the first-ever 2009 CLIO Healthcare Awards, an extension of The CLIO Awards. GSW Worldwide was honored with two silver awards in the DTC disease awareness print category for its work with Takeda’s Uloric for Flares Aren’t the Whole Story and A (Slightly Confusing) History of Eczema for Astellas’ Protopic. The agency also took home silver for Covidien’s Dosing Matters in the direct-to-professional (DTP) print category. The agency’s work for Ethicon Endo-Surgery’s Ligamax 5-Test Center was named a finalist in the DTP device and diagnostics category. Pink Tank, a specialty division of GSW Worldwide that focuses on women and health, was awarded bronze for its corporate self-promotion print campaign. The division’s Web site, knowher.com, was recognized as a finalist in the DTP interactive category. Ignite Health was awarded silver in the DTC disease awareness category for livewithit.com, a serial Web miniseries that uses hand-drawn characters and animations and intertwining storylines to tell the story of five diverse people whose lives intersect at a support group by a shared circumstance of living with HIV/AIDS. Palio was honored with a silver award in the DTC poster campaign category for GRACE — a philanthropic campaign that pays tribute and gives a peek into the lives and times of the Greatest Generation. Chandler Chicco Agency (CCA), a global healthcare public relations firm, was awarded silver in the DTP strategic communications category for its work with Novartis’ The Christopher Film Series, a series of original short films depicting a young adult living with cystic fibrosis (CF) as he struggles with the transition to adulthood. PMRG Recognizes Marketing Researchers The 2009 Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group (PMRG) Awards honored Susan McDonald, CEO of National Analysts Worldwide, with the R.R. Fordyce Award for her long-term dedication, exemplary leadership, and advancement to the healthcare marketing research profession. The first-ever Marketing Researcher of The Year Awards were presented to Daniel Feldman, director, market research, at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Thomas (T.J.) Scott, director of business insights for customer-driven interactions at AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals. Jim Kirk, practice leader of Eidetics, the market intelligence and analytics practice of Quintiles Consulting, received the PMRG President’s Award. The Circle of Excellence Awards were presented to Stephanie D. Foye, Ph.D., practice leader, analytics, at marketRx, Rochelle Cinque Scott, director of community relations at PMRG, and Heidi Boyle, director of events at PMRG. Rising Tax Rates Tax Issues to Play Bigger Role in Business Strategy The global financial crisis, government pressure, changing market dynamics, and rapidly evolving healthcare reforms are likely to drive up the effective tax rate for the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industry, according to a report by PricewaterhouseCoopers titled Pharma 2020: Taxing times ahead — Which path will you take? The industry’s response to these trends, including diminishing reliance on the blockbuster drug model, will make tax planning more complicated and challenging. A poll of 35 senior tax executives from pharma, biotech, and medical-device companies revealed: n 63% agreed that the cost of increased taxes on their organizations might eventually be passed on to consumers unless they find ways to operate more efficiently and transform their approach to R&D and sales and marketing. n 62% agreed that an increase in the effective tax rate for the pharmaceutical and life-sciences industry is inevitable. n 62% said they are looking to maximize tax credits and other incentives for research and development. n 100% believe that the demand for tax specialists will grow substantially as tax issues for the industry become more complex. Deal Making Industry Executives Anticipate Multiple Deals Despite the current economic downturn and the credit crunch, life-sciences deal activity will increase significantly in 2010. In fact, 92% of survey respondents indicated they expect to see some level of deal activity in the next 12 months, with more than half of that group indicating they expect to do multiple deals. These are the results of a survey by IntraLinks of key decision-makers attending the BioNetwork West 2009 conference on their anticipated deal activity in 2010. Rather than rely on outdated, unreliable, and paper-heavy processes to conduct due diligence, more than half of survey respondents indicated that 50% to 100% of their deals are done using a virtual data room (VDR), representing a dramatic shift toward relying upon on-demand solutions to exchange confidential regulatory documents. Key survey findings: n 92% of survey respondents indicated they expect to see some level of deal activity in the next 12 months. Of that group, 57% of survey respondents indicated they expect to do one to four deals. n More than half of survey respondents indicated that 50% to 100% of their deals are done using a virtual data room. n 96% of survey respondents indicated that some portion of their deals include large, linked documents such as investigational new drug applications (INDs), and nondisclosure agreements, among others. Of that group, 33% indicated that this is the case in the majority (76% to 100%) of their deals. Healthcare Reform Physicians, Payers Disagree on Healthcare Funding Payers and physicians have different views on where savings will be found to support new healthcare initiatives. According to new Kantar Health research, payers believe that reducing what President Obama called “waste, fraud, and abuse" in hospital care will provide the majority of needed funding, while physicians point to prescription drugs as the prime source of potential savings. Although payers and physicians don’t see eye to eye on the funding source, they are in sync when it comes to their reactions to the proposal. When asked if they agreed with President Obama’s proposed healthcare reforms, 50% of payers and 42% of physicians say they do not support the proposal. In addition, almost 30% of both groups believe they still need more information before making a decision. Sales Incentives Pay Ratios for Sales Employees Little Changed Despite significant change in the economy and the industry, fixed and variable pay ratios for sales employees did not change significantly when compared with previous years. This is one of the findings of Towers Perrin and Synygy annual survey on Strategic Sales Incentive Plan Design and Governance in the Pharmaceutical Industry. The study focused on the compensation plan design and governance practices for primary care sales representatives, specialty salesforces, hospital representatives, and managed care account executives. The findings were compiled from responses of more than 40 pharmaceutical organizations representing more than 78,000 sales representatives. Key findings indicate: n Plan designs reflected the impact of the recession in a variety of ways, including: modification of payout curves, defining more stable performance measures, changing use of contests and SPIFFs, adjusting quotas, discretionary fund usage, and/or increased use of caps. n Despite decreased visibility and forecast uncertainty caused by economic conditions, quota-based plans continue to dominate. Editor’s Note: See related article on page 10. Tuning in… Featured Podcast Performance-based Pricing in Patient Recruitment Featured Thought Leader: Richard Malcolm, Ph.D., CEO, Acurian Editor’s note: Visit pharmavoice.com/content/industryevents/podcasts.html to view a complete list of archived podcasts. Featured Whitepaper Alternate Channel of Physician Engagement — Leveraging the alternate channel of physician engagement to achieve a higher ROI for end-of-life products Provided by: Indegene Editor’s note: Visit pharmavoice.com/content/industryevents/whitepapers.html to view a complete list of archived whitepapers.
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