INDUSTRY at Large
Pfizer and CHOP Team up for Pediatric R&D Pharmacy Benefits Survey finds PMI Useful In Memoriam Awards… ePharmaSolutions Wins Life- Sciences Industry ICON Wins Partnership Award INC Named Top CRO Ogilvy CommonHealth Wins DxMA Award Milestones… A Decade in the Making NORD Celebrates 30 Years of Serving Patients and Families West Turns 90 Podcasts Immersive Learning: What You Need to Know to Build Faster, Smarter Commercial Teams Thought Leader: Garry O’Grady, Pharmaceutical Institute Disruptive Innovation in R&D Processes Thought Leader: Dr. Hugh Davis, Janssen Webinars Learn How Artificial Intelligence Can Improve Pharma Efficiency Sponsored by: ClinGenuity Prevention of Persistent Atrial Fibrillation — The Next Frontier in Pharmacotherapy (OnDemand) Sponsored by: avertAF White papers Artificial Intelligence Tool Streamlines Drug Development Sponsored by: ClinGenuity Amped ATU: How Data Fusion Can Turn Awareness, Trial, and Usage Studies Into a Powerful Tactical and Strategic Tool Sponsored by: Encuity Global Clinical Trial Data Collection: A Minefield or a Walk in the Park? Sponsored by: Global Telecom Testing Driving Innovation in BioPharma: From Discovery to Delivery with Product Lifecycle Management Sponsored by: Kalypso Direct to Persona: The New DTC Sponsored by: Liquid Grid Racing for Results: Enhancing Your Performance Through the Use of Immersive Training Simulations Sponsored by: Pharmaceutical Institute In the April Talent Pool department, we inadvertently ran the wrong photo to accompany Shaun Urban’s promotion to managing partner at Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide, the health behavior experts of Ogilvy & Mather. We sincerely apologize for this error and are happy to put the right face with the right name at this time. ePharmaSolutions Wins Life- Sciences Industry ePharmaSolutions has won the Best of Show category for Clinical Trials at the 2013 Bio-IT World Conference and Expo. PatientLive, an application designed for Microsoft Windows 8, provides an overview of approved medications and new medical therapies for a wide range of medical conditions. ICON Wins Partnership Award ICON has received the 2013 Partnership Pioneers of the Year award in recognition of its strategic partnership with Pfizer and Parexel. Presented by IIR and Partnerships in Clinical Trials’ advisory board, the award recognizes two or more companies engaged in a partnership that moves beyond the traditional transactional model to a more strategic approach that can bring innovation to the drug development process. iNC Named Top CRO INC Research has been ranked the Top CRO in the 2013 CenterWatch Global Investigative Site Relationship Survey. The company received excellent scores in six out of seven working relationship categories and received some of its highest scores in maintaining a professional staff — monitors, medical experts, and administrative support — and for being well organized and prepared in supporting studies. Ogilvy CommonHealth Wins DxMA Award Ogilvy CommonHealth Worldwide has won first place at the DxMA Awards in the Best Professional Campaign category, for work developed for Zyrtec, an OTC allergy medication. The DxMA Awards, for Diagnostics Market Professionals, recognize the campaigns of the most strategic, creative and effective agencies in pharmaceutical and healthcare advertising. Quintiles Awarded Best CRO at Vaccine Congress Quintiles has been named Best CRO in the Vaccine Industry Excellence (ViE) Awards, which recognize and celebrate individuals, organizations, and initiatives that have made significant contributions over the past 12 months. Spectrum Founder Wins Achievement Award John Seng, founder and president of Spectrum, has been awarded the Public Relations Society of America’s 2013 Frank J. Weaver Lifetime Achievement Award. This distinguished award honors an individual who has made outstanding contributions to the field of healthcare public relations and changed the practice of public relations in America. Pfizer and CHOP Team up for Pediatric R&D The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia (CHOP) and Pfizer have joined forces with the goal of translating biomedical discoveries into novel treatments. CHOP is participating in the Centers for Therapeutic Innovation (CTI) network, a collaboration model built by Pfizer that brings academic researchers together with Pfizer scientists to expedite the pace of innovation. CHOP is only the second pediatric center to join the CTI network, which has established partnerships with 21 academic medical centers throughout the United States. The partnership brings together scientists from Pfizer and Children’s Hospital to identify preclinical research at CHOP with potential applications for innovative treatments. Pfizer will share with CHOP researchers a collection of antibodies and other proteins, along with other proprietary research and drug-development tools. CHOP investigators will collaborate with Pfizer scientists at CTI laboratories in both Boston and New York. The goal is to advance a project into a Phase I clinical trial. “This partnership will bring together the leading science at CHOP with Pfizer’s global capabilities," says Jose Carlos Gutierrez-Ramos, Ph.D., senior VP, head of biotherapeutics R&D at Pfizer. “Together, we increase the potential to bring novel medicines to patients." The partnership with Children’s Hospital is designed to identify cutting-edge research in areas of high unmet need that hold strong potential for therapeutic interventions. Pharmacy Benefits Survey finds PMI Useful Catalina Health launched an eight-week quality improvement initiative, with other healthcare partners, in August 2012, to disseminate newly designed patient medication information (PMI) to patients filling prescriptions at participating pharmacies. The results show more than 90% of patients recalled receiving the new patient information and considered the written information useful. Additional survey results show the following: » Females and males had an equally high recall rate (more than 90%) of receipt of the single-page PMI document. » All age groups (18 to 65+) had an equally high recall rate of receipt of the PMI (more than 90%). » Patients from 18 to 40 would prefer to have PMI delivered electronically, in addition to receiving the single-page PMI. » Patients of all age groups prefer to have a pharmacist explain the PMI along with receiving a written document. John Racik, founder and former president and CEO of Stonefly Communications, has died at 52, from a long battle with cancer. In 2002, Mr. Racik was recruited (by what is today inVentiv Health) to take over Blue Diesel, which provides digital solutions to the healthcare marketplace, and which earlier this year merged with GSW. While leading Blue Diesel, his teams generated a new wave of growth that powered the creation of Stonefly. In the 20 years before founding Stonefly, Mr. Racik led pioneering successes in publishing, medical education, and brand management. John was a long-time friend of PharmaVOICE, and we join the hundreds of people throughout the industry who fondly remember this truly innovative and generous individual. A Decade in the Making In just 10 years, Hobart Group Holdings, a dedicated payer agency, grew from one $200,000 client to a $30 million business. The company accomplished this by being singularly focused on managed markets, a unique staffing structure that includes former payers, and a culture that thrives on the passion to discover new approaches that improve patient care through innovative access and reimbursement tools. NORD Celebrates 30 Years of Serving Patients and Families The National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD) celebrates 30 years of progress through the Orphan Drug Act (ODA) promoting a promising future for the rare disease community. The nonprofit organization represents the 30 million Americans with rare diseases and is committed to the identification, treatment, and cure of rare disorders through patient assistance, education, advocacy, research, and patient/family services. According to Peter Saltonstall, president and CEO of NORD, for 30 years and counting, the organization has been at the heart of rare disease activity, driving initiatives, and bringing meaningful progress to patients by working with dedicated partners in patient advocacy, government, and industry. West Turns 90 West Pharmaceutical Services celebrated its 90th anniversary. Every day, more than 90 million West components from vaccines to at-home drug administration, to injections in hospitals and other healthcare settings are used. The company was founded in 1923 by Herman O. West. “From packaging systems that enabled the widespread distribution of drugs such as insulin and penicillin to innovations that enable the administration of today’s biologic drugs, West has been, and will continue to be, by the side of our pharmaceutical customers and patients for a healthier world," says Donald Morel, Jr., Ph.D., chairman and CEO. The Survey Says… According to a HealthPrize Technologies’ survey, Americans really dislike taking their meds. The digital health company’s survey results show: » 47% of people would rather take out the trash than take their prescribed medications. » 47% of 18- to 34-year-olds say paying for gas for their car is more important than paying for their prescription medications. » 27% would rather get a shot than take their prescribed medication and 10% would rather have a cavity filled. » 20% of women say they’d be more likely to follow a prescription for their pet than for themselves. Dr. Katrina Firlik, co-founder and chief medical officer of HealthPrize, says psychologically, people tend to prefer actions that offer short-term benefits, but most chronic medications provide no short-term benefits — only short-term annoyances. The survey included responses from 1,021 U.S. consumers who take prescription medications regularly to help treat a chronic illness or serious medical condition.
