Highlights of the important and the interesting from the world of healthcare:
Rethinking Big Pharma’s emerging-markets strategy: As blockbuster drugs fall off patent in mature markets, conventional Big Pharma wisdom holds that drugmakers can churn up emerging-markets sales to make up the difference. But that’s much easier said than done. Emerging markets are by their nature fragmented, plus they hold lower margins and in some cases already-entrenched local competition. The serious challenges to the emerging-markets strategy suggest big pharmaceutical companies will need to look elsewhere to drive the growth that they seek.
More trouble at J&J: On the same day that it received an FDA warning letter for lax procedures at a plant that produces sterilization tools, Johnson & Johnson said it has hired an outside consulting firm to help fix manufacturing problems. The maker of Tylenol, Motrin and other medications laid out plans to restructure its manufacturing operations in the wake of the latest in a series of recalls that have tarnished the company’s household brands.
A look at Qliance: Seattle’s Qliance, a group of medical clinics organized in a way reminiscent of concierge medicine, grabbed a $6 million round of funding led by Jeff Bezos recently as the company hopes to replicate its model across the country. Qliance CEO Norman Wu spoke with peHUB about the company’s philosophy: “Our doctors don’t receive more money to do more stuff. We do well–and our doctors are awarded bigger bonuses–if our patients stay on as members.”
What if SCOTUS invalidates the individual mandate? It wouldn’t be pretty, writes Megan McArdle of The Atlantic. “That would leave politicians deciding whether to repeal [reform’s] most popular features, or end individual health insurance as we know it. Fun choice.”
Losing the war: “In general, we haven’t made an impact at all in the war on cancer,” says oncologist David Agus in this TedMed talk. He suggests a new, cross-disciplinary approach, using atypical drugs and computer modeling.
Symptom quizzes: Pharmaceutical company quizzes that purportedly aim to help patients diagnose themselves do not meet the approval of the Pharma Marketing Blog: “Symptom quizzes designed by pharmaceutical marketers in cahoots with sponsored patient advocacy groups are dishonest.”
A Deep-dive Into Specialty Pharma
A specialty drug is a class of prescription medications used to treat complex, chronic or rare medical conditions. Although this classification was originally intended to define the treatment of rare, also termed “orphan” diseases, affecting fewer than 200,000 people in the US, more recently, specialty drugs have emerged as the cornerstone of treatment for chronic and complex diseases such as cancer, autoimmune conditions, diabetes, hepatitis C, and HIV/AIDS.
