UpFront
Awards…
» CSL Behring Receives NORD Award CSL Behring has received the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) 2011 Corporate Award for new treatments brought to market for patients with rare diseases. CSL Behring’s new treatment, Factor XIII concentrate (human), is approved for the routine prophylactic treatment of congenital factor XIII deficiency, a rare bleeding disorder.
» Ogilvy CommonHealth Wins at ADCNJ Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide has won 13 awards at the 48th annual Art Directors Club of New Jersey (ADCNJ) Awards. The ADCNJ recognizes outstanding creative from artists, designers, photographers, illustrators, and Web developers.
» Purohit Navigation Wins DxMA Awards Purohit Navigation won six awards at the 2011 Diagnostic Marketing Association (DxMA) Creative Communications Awards ceremony. Purohit Navigation won a first-place award, a second-place award, and two third-place awards. The APP Oncology campaign, created for APP Pharmaceuticals, won a first-place award. Taking a second-place award was Promius Pharma’s EpiCeram campaign. INDUSTRY at Large
Lilly Launches Multichannel Patient Education Platform
Lilly has launched Lilly for Better Health, a program that helps Americans live healthier, more active lives through a multichannel platform designed to reach patients where they like to receive health information. The platform includes an array of patient education materials, Lilly programs and partnerships that help patients manage their health, a dynamic website — lillyforbetterhealth.com — and the Lilly Health Channel on YouTube. The website provides practical tips on healthy eating, physical activity, and stress management, as well as information on managing health conditions, such as diabetes, heart disease, and depression. Podcasts Mentoring: A Professional Advantage Thought Leader: Laurie Cooke, R.Ph., CAE, Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association Best Practices to Increase Patient Recruitment in Clinical Trials Thought Leader: Louis Shapiro, American Medical Alert Corp. Leveraging Customer Insights to Maximize ROI Thought Leader: Jay Bolling, Roska Healthcare White papers A Different Perspective Sponsored by: Roska Healthcare Quote of the Month… “It is incumbent on an individual to take accountability for his or her own career development." Philip McCrea ClearPoint Learning Systems Merck Serono Adapts Workplace for MS Employees Merck Serono, a division of Merck KGaA, is committed to supporting its employees who are living with multiple sclerosis (MS). Flexible hours, working from home, adaptive office environments, and a commitment to raise awareness throughout the organization form the cornerstone of the company’s employment practices. A new survey among people living with MS reveals the need for support from employers and physicians to make continued employment a viable option for them. The Consider MS Survey, commissioned by Merck Serono, reveals that 80% of people with MS say they need more support from their employers than they are currently getting in order to continue working. Employer Medical Costs Expected to Increase U.S. employers can expect to see healthcare costs rise by 8.5% in 2012, compared with an increase of 8% in 2011, according to the annual Behind the Numbers report on medical cost trends by PwC’s Health Research Institute. Three factors inflating medical costs are: consolidation among hospitals and physicians; increasing cost shifting from Medicare and Medicaid; and post-recession stress buildup on workers. Factors that will deflate costs include: increased cost sharing; blockbuster brand-name drugs going off patent; and tiering on out-of-network providers. Patients, Physicians, Biopharma, and Payers Differ Widely on Defining Value Biopharmaceutical executives, managed care executives, physicians, and patients with chronic illness foresee better prescription medicines in the United States over the next decade. But they disagree on a number of vital healthcare issues, which may affect the drug development process, according to findings in The New Health Report 2011, commissioned by Quintiles. Specifically, 61% biopharma executives were the only group in which the majority of respondents include outcomes as part of their value definition; 43% of managed care executives mentioned cost, but not in conjunction with outcomes, as did 40% of physicians. A significant number of patients could not define value (31%) at all. U.S. Healthcare Costs Rise The average per capita cost of healthcare services covered by commercial insurance and Medicare programs increased by 5.77% over the 12 months ending March 2011, according to S&P Healthcare Economic Composite Index. Milestones… ProTrials Celebrates 15 Years of Service ProTrials Research, a woman-owned clinical research organization, continues its rapid expansion with the addition of international studies in Spain and Italy as it celebrates 15 years of service. ProTrials has successfully completed more than 350 clinical trials conducted throughout North America, Europe, and the Pacific Rim. Other milestones include: the expansion of its range of expertise in ophthalmology studies and a staffing increase to 100 professionals all of whom have an average of 15 years of clinical trial experience. Global Spending on Medicines Grows Global spending for medicines will reach almost $1.1 trillion by 2015, reflecting a slowing CAGR of 3% to 6% over the next five years, according to the IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics. This compares with 6.2% annual growth over the past five years. Lower levels of spending growth for medicines in the United States, the ongoing impact of patent expiries in developed markets, continuing strong demand in pharmerging markets, and policy-driven changes in several countries are among the key factors that will influence future growth. Pardon Us… In the July/August index, we listed Ahsan Awan’s company incorrectly. This change agent is the director of the clinical trials division of PharmaLink Inc.
