Stress Can Help Kill Cancer Cells

Interesting article out of The Brookings Register in South Dakota.
Researchers at South Dakota State University "...are investigating whether "stressing" cancer cells can make cancer radiation treatment and chemotherapy more effective. "

According to the article...

"Professor Xiangming Guan of SDSU's Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences explained that when cancer cells are tired out, they are easier to kill using free radicals, the basic mechanism behind radiation and some chemotherapy drugs."

Guan goes on to explain....

"We have also demonstrated that the stressed cancer was more sensitive to radiation treatment in several different human cancer cells such as ovarian cancer, lung cancer, breast cancer, and skin cancer ."

Interesting idea....and it makes intuitive sense. We all know that a stressed organism is more susceptible to illness. It only makes sense that this principle would apply at the cellular level. Except in this case scientists would be applying this principle to make 'stressed' cancer cells 'sick'.

Additional Information on Peyronie's Disease

Just a follow-up to my last post......
I have had the good fortune to have been communicating with Stan Hardin who is the head of The
Association of Peyronie's Disease Advocates. Stan reached out to me after I had written a post that was questioning Pfizer's decision to partner with Auxilium to develop a drug for Peyronie's Disease.

Stan took the time to provide additional information about not only the physical aspects of the disease, but he addressed the serious emotional issues that men afflicted with this disease have to deal with. Additionally Stan pointed out that up to 9% of men are afflicted with the disease.
You can read more about both Peyronie's Disease and Stan's organization at their website here.
The site is extremely well done and informative.

And best of luck to both Pfizer and Auxilium in their quest for a cure.

Update re: Pfizer and Peyronie's Disease

Well...I stand corrected.
In my last post I discussed Pfizer and Auxilium's drug development agreement for a drug to target Peyronie's Disease.
And in my post, I was somewhat critical of Pfizer's decision.
However, a reader was able to provide me with additional information re: Peyronie's Disease. It turns out that that the number of men suffering from Peyronie's Disease is not 1-4%, The percentage of men afflicted by the diesease is 9%.
You can see a brief article about the disease here.
But, equally as important, the reader's discussed some of the emotional issues that men suffering from this disease face. He made me realize how devasting this disease can be to men who are afflicted by it.

Bottom line.....
Pfizer and Auxilium are working to find a cure for a disease that, if they are successful, will not be a blockbuster. To use a baseball analogy, it will probably be a 'single', not a 'home run'. Nevertheless this drug will improve the lives and health of a significant percentage of people. And, when it comes down to it, improving the lives and health of people is the real purpose of the Pharmaceutical Industry.

How Will Pfizer Spend Their Cash?

Mike Huckman of CNBC reported earlier this week here that Pfizer's streak raising dividends ended after 40 years. What does this signify for Pfizer?

Huckman reports that Miller Tabak, healthcare analyst Les Funtleyder, feels that -
"The dividend is still above seven percent which makes the company seem almost distressed." Yet, the cash hoard could turn out to be a major advantage. Funtleyder continues by writing..."longer the cost of capital stays high, the more cash on a balance sheet becomes a competitive advantage. Should we be in for a prolonged lull in the capital raising cycle, PFE may be able to buy its way out of some of its pipeline deficiency."

So say Pfizer is looking to 'buy its way out of some of its pipeline deficiency'. That could be a viable strategy. So what type of deals would they look to strike? What type of cutting edge drugs would they deem worthy to invest in? How would Pfizer strategically spend their cash?

Late this week we got an answer. Pfizer signed a drug development partnership with Auxilium Pharmaceuticals and is paying $75 million up and and up to $410 million over time if additional milestones are met. But as Huckman writes....this is not your "typical" drug partnership -

"So what makes this so unusual? Well, it's the drug AUXL is developing. It's a two-in-one for a rare disease that causes fingers to curl toward the palm and--and, no, I'm not making this up and it's not a joke--for penises that curve. The "problem" is called Peyronie's disease and it reportedly affects one to four percent of men. I'd never heard of Peyronie's until I read the press release."

I don't know about you...but if I still owned Pfizer stock...I think I would rather that they just gave me the dividend.

Big Pharma not a Threat to Biotech yet

Interesting article here at The Street.com.
As Adam Feuerstein writes:

A whole host of things have to go right before drugmakers like Merck(MRK Quote - Cramer on MRK - Stock Picks) or Novartis(NVS Quote - Cramer on NVS - Stock Picks) can compete in the biotech arena.

So the Biotech industry has no reason to fear Big Pharma....at least not just yet.

Merck and Generic Biotech Drugs

Merck has announced that it is creating a new division to sell Generic Biotech drugs.
Generic Biotech Drugs are appealing to Big Pharma because the cost to develop and manufacture these types of products are projected to be significantly less than developing a new Drug Compound. However, the revenue from Biotech Generics will be significantly higher than from traditional small molecule Generics. The math is simple...Lower Cost + Higher Revenue = More Profits.
And Merck may have a leg up on their competition in the Biotech Generics arena.
According to the article in Forbes:

"Merck has a killer app when it comes to making copycat proteins (see "Needle Work"). In 2006 it dropped $400 million on privately held GlycoFi to get its hands on a technology that can produce biotech drugs cheaply in yeast, instead of in complex and finicky mammalian cells. Merck wanted the tools for its own drug development. But one of GlycoFi's proofs of concept was a scientific paper showing its method could be used to create a copy of Amgen's Epogen. The paper was published in Science in September 2006. Merck will file a copycat Epogen with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in 2012."

Seth Godin on Recruiting

I was poking around the 'Net this morning and came across a fantastic post by Seth Godin.
Seth is a best selling author/entrepreneur who focuses primarily on the subject of Marketing.
In this post, Seth discusses the importance of Talent to an organization, and then wonders why most companies do such a poor job recruiting the type of superior talent they need.
Seth writes:

"Most hiring managers don't understand organizations that go to extraordinary lengths to find and retain amazing people."

Unfortunately, Seth continues:

"Most hiring, especially in a down market, is handled as a mostly bureaucratic task. Find people who fit in, do a rudimentary background check to eliminate problems, try not to break any hiring laws..."

And Seth closes his post by asking:

"If talent is so important that you are betting the company on it, why aren't you actually investing in finding and retaining that talent?"

So we all need to ask ourselves....What are we doing, both as companies and as Recruiters, to ensure that we are hiring and retaining the best talent on the market?

Another article about the trouble at the FDA

Today's Washington Post has an article that discusses the issues facing the FDA....and the article does not paint a pretty picture. William Hubbard, a long time former employee at the agency is quoted as saying:

"FDA is close to being at a tipping point -- the agency is hanging on by its fingertips in protecting us,"....If something is not done, they could become a failed institution, and no one wants that. The FDA is not only important to protecting the public health but also to the industries it regulates."

David Ross, another former FDA employee says:

"I'm afraid we're going to see more horrible things happen if we don't get our act together on this."

The problems are not just related to Pharma though according to Christopher Waldrop of the Consumer Federation of America.

"Food safety tends to get short shrift...The drug side tends to get much more attention than the food side. Food is equally important and needs to get the attention it deserves."

Some of the problems the article cites are woefully inadequate and antiquated computer systems
and a lack of resources and people with which to execute much needed inspections....especially overseas.

Today's article in the Washington Post couple with the recent New York Times Magazine article [discussed in an earlier post] present us with a frightening commentary with regards to the state of the FDA. Unfortunately the problems won't be solved overnight. But there is no question that the problems at the Agency need to be addressed quickly and aggressively....for all of our health and safety.

Obama and Big Pharma

Well....it looks like Barack Obama is going to be the next President of the United States.
Now the question is how will his victory affect the Pharma industry?
Here is an article from the Wall Street Journal from two weeks ago that laid out how an Obama or a McCain victory would impact the industry. According to the article, Big Pharma could be the biggest loser no matter who won the race.

The Safety Gap

Today's N.Y. Times Magazine contains a frightening article about the about the challenges facing the FDA. The short version is the FDA is under-equipped, under-staffed, and under-capitalized to deal with the challenges of a Global economy. For example, the FDA's limited resources prevent it from adequately policing the very manufacturing sites where there are most likely to be problems. And even if inspectors do successfully audit a site, they rarely if ever are able to go back to follow-up. The article states:

"And when inspectors find dangerous conditions at domestic plants, they generally return promptly to ensure that those conditions get fixed. Not so in foreign plants. In a report released Oct. 22, government auditors reported that between 2002 and 2007, F.D.A. inspectors found dangerous conditions in 15 foreign plants. Only one of those plants was reinspected within two years, the auditors found. In every other case, the agency took foreign managers at their word that promised changes were made."

The article goes on to cite numerous examples that illustrate the issues and problems that the agency faces.

Bottom line...the Food and Drug Safety system in this country is broken and it desperately needs to be fixed.

Cash Poor Biotech Firms

Interesting article in the Wall Street Journal about the impact that the global crisis in liquidity will have on small biotech firms. According to the article:

"In the U.S., 38% of 370 small biotech companies are operating with less than a year's worth of cash, and nearly 100 publicly traded biotech companies have less than six months' cash..."

Unless these companies find capital....the majority of them will cease to exist.

Bottom line: For the sake not only of the Pharma/Biotech industries, but for the sake of the economy in general, we have to find a way to increase the flow of capital. Without access to capital,
good ideas are never developed and good companies cease to exist.

Here come the M&A's

The Philadelphia Inquirer has an interesting article about what they anticipate will be a deluge of deals in the Pharma sector. According to the article the question is not if, but when will we see these deals happen.

China Rising - the outsourcing trend

According to Ed Silverman here, China is becoming the leading outsourcing location for Pharma companies.
[It is ranked as the #1 location in Asia according to a report by PriceWaterhouseCooper.]
The most frightening trend for U.S. based R&D operations is that China is becoming "...a rival as a leading source of drug discovery and innovation."
According to one pharmaceutical industry executive interviewed for the report, “Within five to ten years, we will be moving from ‘made in China’ to ‘discovered in China’”

Victor Frankl and how to not be depressed about the state of the Pharma industry

Especially within the last week, it is hard to surf the 'Net or turn on the T.V. and not be inundated with bad news about the economy or the state of the Pharma industry. With all of the negative news out there, it is easy to become overwhelmed. All of us collectively feel that we are the victims of circumstances and events beyond our control.

And the truth of the matter is that we have no control over these events. We have no control over the economy. We have no control over whether or not Congress will approve the bailout. We have no control over whether or not our companies will lay us off. The list of things that we have no control over is infinite.

So what are our options? Do we simply curl up in a fetal position and give up?

Actually there is another option....and this advice comes from Victor Frankl.
Victor Frankl was an Austrian Psychiatrist and survivor of the Nazi concentration camps. He wrote a book about both his experiences in the camps and the philosophy and the mind-set that he developed while imprisoned in them. In that book, "Man's Search for Meaning" Frankl summarized his philosophy when he wrote,

"Everything can be taken from a man or a woman but one thing: the last of human freedoms to choose one's attitude in any given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way."

So when times get tough....and they probably will -
When the economy falters....and it will probably continue to do so -
We have to realize that while we can't control what is going on externally in the world, we can control our attitude toward these events.
So instead of worrying and being depressed about a pending lay-off....which we can't control anyway....we can instead update our resumes and work to improve our interviewing skills.
And instead of curling up on the couch depressed about our company's 3rd quarter earnings, we can instead get up and attend an industry related networking event and try to develop contacts that will enable us to move to a better company.
Bottom line...
Our attitudes and our actions are the only things that we actually can control.

GSK to cut 850 R&D jobs

According to Reuters GSK is set to slash 850 jobs in R&D in both the UK and the US.
You can view the article here.

As John Murphy, analyst at Goldman Sachs notes, "R&D is no longer the sacred cow it was in the past."

Credit Crunch to affect Pharma M&A activity

The Financial Times asks an interesting question in this article today....Will the credit crunch affect M&A activity? The article discusses the possible implications of the credit crunch on Roche's bid for Genentech. While they were not mentioned specifically in the article, two other pending deals that obviously are subject to the same financial issues as the Roche/Genentech deal, are King Pharmaceuticals' bid to acquire Alpharma and the "Mystery Suitor" trying to acquire Imclone.
Time will tell if the lack of liquidity in the markets is the death knell for these deals.

Does a Pfizer Breakup Make Sense?

Peter Benesh of Investor's Business Daily asks here if Pfizer would not be better off if it broke up the company. Peter writes,
"One idea, whispered more than hollered, is to break up Pfizer and sell it in pieces to unlock shareholder value."
Les Funtleyder, an analyst at Miller Tabak agrees with the premise that a breakup may also be better for shareholders:
"Investors wonder if the share price reflects the value of the assets and the business and, if not, will a breakup unlock that value?"

Others quoted in the article ask if Pfizer's size and its culture stifle innovation and if a "smaller and nimbler" Pfizer wouldn't be more successful.

I am not sure exactly what is the best route for Pfizer to take in order to address its problems.
But there is one thing I am sure of....The problems that Pfizer faces are not unique to Pfizer.
Every other big Pharma company is wrestling with the same issues and problems.
Bottom line: The Big Pharma business model is outdated and ineffective in today's environment.

Major Pfizer layoffs on the way

According to contacts of mine....there are some major layoffs in the works at Pfizer.
As one on my contacts said in an email, the problems at Pfizer are worse than they expected.
It really looks like it will be bad.
And Big Pharma's woes continue.....

Troubles for Merck

FiercePharma reports that an influential analyst for the pharma sector has just downgraded Merck shares. See the post here. Tim Anderson of Sanford Bernstein recently cited a number of reasons for his negative stance with regards to Merck ranging from the problems with Singulair and Gardasil to problems with Merck's pipeline.

It sure is tough being a Big Pharma firm these days.....

Outsourcing the Drug Industry

Interesting article in the most recent BusinessWeek magazine entitled Outsourcing the Drug Industry. The article details the efforts of Big Pharma companies to develop drug discovery partnerships with companies in China and India. According to the article,

"What the multinationals now seek from India is the same combination of brainpower and cost savings that made the subcontinent a leader in software and computer services....[And] the impact of research outsourcing will be amplified greatly as China, with an even bigger pool of biochemists, expands its role."

But the article does note that,

"The rush east, where five PhD chemists can be had for the cost of one in the West, entails risks."

More Hostile Takeovers in Pharma?

Anne Law asked an interesting question in her blog, "Will hostile takeovers become the norm for drugmakers? You can read her blog here.
The truth is.....It looks like there will be a continued shake-out in the industry. The Pharmaceutical industry is in the midst of a very dynamic period as the established players in Big Pharma look for ways to generate revenues now that the traditional "Blockbuster" model no longer works. The industry is starting to feel the competitive pressures that other industries have been dealing with for decades.
But the fact remains the Pharma industry is still remains one of the strongest industries out there.
And when I complain about the state of the Pharma industry to friends of mine who recruit for other industries, they laugh and tell me they would gladly swap their Recruiting Firm for mine. They say that while the Pharma industry is hitting some bumps in the road, the problems Pharma is facing pale in comparison to the problems plaguing other industries.
More on this topic later.....

Preparing for Layoffs

Joann Lublin over at the Wall Street Journal had a great article earlier this week about how to handle rumors of an impending lay-off. The short version of the article is this: Be Prepared.
Great article...and timely advice.

Roch's move was really a surprise

A couple of days ago, I posted about how the people at Genentech were blindsided by Roche's announcement of their intent to acquire the remainder of the outstanding shares of Genentech that Roche did not own.
And I guess it really was a surprise.
Further underscoring how unexpected the move by Roche was....Reuters reported that Arthur Levison, Genentech's CEO, sold 90,000 shares last Friday. If he had held on to those shares even one more day, he would have made substantially more profit...upwards of $1 Million Dollars.

Big Pharma Earnings - BMS to cut $1 Billion more

Tracy Staton at Fierce Biotech writes about the earnings reports that Big Pharma has announced over the last few days. The article is here.
While the news for the companies listed was generally upbeat....buried in the announcements are interesting tidbits such as the fact that Bristol-Myers Squibb is planning to cut another $1 Billion dollars...although the company did not provide any specifics.

These announcements further underscore the trend we have been seeing over the last few years.
Long Term Growth at the Big Pharma firms is a thing of the past. Big Pharma is at a loss to find products that can generate the revenue they need to support and grow their organizations. Big Pharma will not disappear. But going forward...if you are looking for stability and career growth...you are better off at a small or mid-size firms.

I expand on this discussion in a later post.

Roche Bids For Genentech

Roche announced a bid to take over the remaining shares of Genentech that it does not already own. Roche's Chairman of the Board, Franz Humer explains the rationale for the move:

"Our long and successful participation in Genentech has provided great benefits to both of our companies and shareholders. It has resulted in one of the biggest success stories in the healthcare industry. Roche's significant investment in Genentech over many years has helped it to focus on innovation and long-term projects, leading to some of the most important breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer and other life-threatening diseases.

The transaction will create a unique opportunity to evolve Roche's hub-and-spoke model into a structure that allows us to strengthen the focus on innovation and accelerate the search for new solutions for unmet medical needs. Combining the strengths of Roche and Genentech will create significant value and result in benefits for patients, employees and shareholders."

Unfortunately, according to reports, the move by Roche totally blindsided the people at Genentech. I guess the "unique opportunity" and "significant value"that Humer describes above wasn't so obvious to the people at Genentech.

Teva still better than Sandoz?

Back on June 5th, I posted about Daniel Vasella, CEO of Novartis, being quoted as saying,

“Teva is better than we are, and that’s hard to take."

I would love to hear his take on the recent announcement of Teva's acquisition of Barr.
What is he saying now?

Teva to acquire Barr

The world's biggest Generic Pharmaceutical company just got bigger.
You can read about it here.
And the industry consolidation continues. The question remains...Is a bigger company always better? Only time will tell.

Pfizer layoffs

Derek Lowe writes in his blog, In The Pipeline, that there are rumors that Pfizer in Groton is slated for layoffs. You can read his post here.
One significant difference about this projected layoff is that:

"...this is going to hit both PhD and associate chemists, as opposed to some earlier reorganizations there which mostly seemed to let lab heads go."

Derek goes on to write about Pfizer:

"It’s going to be a tough place to work, and it’s going to be a tough stock to own. If you have a chance to do anything about either of those situations, I’d look into it."

Big Pharma is sure turning out to be a tough place to be. Fortunately there are a number of smaller and mid-size companies that are growing and that are actually turning out to be great places to work. I will discuss why this trend is occurring in the Pharma industry in a future post.

Alzheimer's Drug problems

According to Ed Silverman in his Pharmalot blog, Myriad Genetics is discontinuing development of Flurizan, their Alzheimer's drug. But there is a bigger issue at stake here than just the failure of one drug. As Ed writes in his blog:

The failure is significant because Flurizan was one of the first drugs to reach late-stage testing that tried to prevent the buildup of amyloid plaque in the brain, a focus of much research into Alzheimer’s. Whether this will raise questions about other drugs targeting amyloid plaque remains to be seen.

Wyeth and Elan are jointly developing a drug that tries to block amyloid plaque and, so far, have generated considerable interest, even though preliminary Phase II results were mixed. Lilly is also in late-stage testing of a drug that works simlarly to Flurizan

Bottom line....are all these companies chasing after the wrong cure for Alzheimer's?

Pharma and the UK

According to an article in Thursday's Financial Times
Leading pharmaceutical groups are cutting back on clinical research in the UK, claiming insufficient commitment by the government and the National Health Service to support new drug development.

Pfizer of the US, Roche of Switzerland and Merck-Serono of Germany are among the companies which have told the Financial Times they have, or will, reduce the number of British patients enrolled in trials to test experimental medicines for life-threatening diseases such as cancer.

The article goes on the quote Harpal Kumar, who is the head of Cancer Research UK, who said:

“In the long-term there is a serious risk that if we get to the point where none of the new drugs are being used in the UK, the trials won’t be done here.”

There are many issues that can be addressed concerning the ongoing debate between the Government in the UK and the Pharma industry over the issues of costs. But the overriding issue here is that people in the UK will ultimately be denied access to new innovative drug treatments. Innovative treatments that save lives will be available in the future, but for people in the UK, they will not have the option of using them. That is a crime.

Novartis CEO - "Teva is better than we are."

File this quote under the category of 'Things you don't hear every day".
In a recent interview, Novartis CEO Dan Vasella said:

“Teva is better than we are, and that’s hard to take."

But Vasella did add:

“It is good to look at how we could be better.”

How often do you hear a CEO so openly praising the competition?
How often do you hear a CEO so openly criticizing his own organization?

War for Talent impacts the FDA

According to this article in the Hartford Courant, even the FDA is not immune to the effects of the War for Talent. Private sector Pharmaceutical companies have been poaching talent from the FDA, and it looks like there is no end in sight for the 'Brain Drain' at the Agency.

Biotech Mega Deals

Earlier in the week, Rueters reported that Ernst & Young had just released their annual Global Biotech Survey. According to the Consulting Firm:

"One or more mega acquisitions of mature biotechnology companies along the lines witnessed with MedImmune -- and nearly seen with Biogen Idec in 2007 -- is likely."

But do big deals make sense? Some experts believe smaller, more targeted, deals provide better results. And there is probably a lot more validity to the latter approach of smaller deals.
As one of my friends is fond of saying, "If you take one large empty drug pipeline and combine it with another large empty drug pipeline, you get one VERY LARGE....EMPTY PIPELINE."

Bigger isn't always better.

Happy Anniversary!!!

On a personal note...today The Harrison Group celebrates 12 years in business.
I started the firm on 5/23/96. Starting and operating The Harrison Group has been by far...with the exception of the birth of my kids....the most significant event of my life. I wouldn't trade my experience of running this company for anything. It really has been that great!!!

Good news for Pharma workers

Ed Silverman over a Pharmalot reports here that while there have been a number of layoffs in the Pharma industry, most workers are finding jobs at comparable or higher levels. In fact, Ed writes:

Of those laid off, 73 percent found new jobs at the same or higher level, and 84 percent did so without relocating.

The bottom line is this: People in the Pharmaceutical industry need to realize that while there has been a tremendous amount of change in the industry...while the newspaper seem to be full of negative press about the future of the industry...there still exists a tremendous amount of opportunity in Pharma. The Pharmaceutical Industry is still...by far...the most exciting and rewarding industry out there. People are being laid off...some companies are downsizing...but there is still a lot of hiring going on.

And I see it every day.

Hassan says Schering Plough recovery still on track

Fred Hassan told shareholders at a meeting in Memphis on Friday that he still feels that his turn-around plans for Schering-Plough are still on track. You can see the article here.
But he backs his claim up with some solid facts. Sales at Schering are up by $6.6 Billion in the last four years. And Schering-Plough now has 13 experimental drugs in the final rounds of human testing. That figure is up from 5 in 2003. The recent developments with Vytorin has obviously set Schering back somewhat...but maybe Hassan can still pull off another turn-around...Stay tuned.

Chinese Generics

According to a recent article on Reuters, there soon will be a wave of generics coming out of China.
The end result of this development will be a significant decrease in prices for generics.
The problem is this...if cost becomes the overriding concern for these companies, then quality will eventually suffer. Quality issues when they involve things like toys and consumer products are admittedly an annoyance...but rarely do those issues cause any serious damage. Unfortunately quality issues in products that we ingest can have extremely far-reaching implications.
Stay tuned for more...

Pharma rising

Fierce Biotech reports that profits rose at Novartis, Merck and Lilly. No...this does not signal the end of trouble for the Pharma industry. But - as they wrote in the article - profits are still better than the alternative. You can read the article here.

Pfizer's woes

Crain's New York reports Pfizer 1st quarter profits are down 18%. Ed Silverman on his blog wonders if Pfizer will now slash it dividend. See Ed's take on Pfizer here.

Pharma R&D cuts not as bad as reported

There has been a lot of discussion recently about the job cuts that we are seeing in the Pharma industry. But while the situation is admittedly tough for the people who are being laid-off, the truth is the industry as a whole is still in pretty good shape. As reported in FierceBiotech on 4/9, while there have been cuts,:

The money spent on R&D in the U.S. continues to rise, but after an 11.3 percent hike in 2006 budgets rose only 2.7 percent to a still considerable $35.4 billion.

Again, the industry still experiencing difficulties, but it is by no means decimated. While growth in R&D spending has slowed...the reality is...there still is growth!! While it is easy to get caught up in all the negative press we see about the industry, some times we do need to stop and take a look at the bright side.

What does the Pharma industry need to do?

According to an article in Fox Business [view here]:
"Pharmaceutical companies currently challenged with replacing the $65 billion worth of product expected to go off patent in the next four years must dramatically rethink their R&D models for future success,..."
That's the problem...But how does Big Pharma resolve these problems? The article goes on to discuss a new report just released by Deloitte that just might contain a viable set of solutions. Pharmaceutical companies need modify "...current R&D programs focused on developing a small portfolio of high revenue blockbusters...to R&D programs focused on high efficacy treatments developed for smaller patient populations based on specific genotypes."
Deloitte's study goes on to state that:

"The R&D model of the future will incorporate:

-- R&D strategies which support the assembly of treatment portfolios for the entire disease life cycle and the various genotype specific patient segments in the life cycle, rather than the traditional one-off "blockbuster"

-- Focused R&D programs based on genotyped patients/subjects and biomarkers

-- Virtual, disease-specific R&D networks, incorporating patients, physicians and the medical treatment infrastructure, which involves extensive partnering and collaboration with all the disease knowledge communities

-- Virtual R&D processes with significant outsourcing to maximize flexibility and manage development risk"

The complete report from Deloitte can be viewed here.

Interesting food for thought.

Wyeth lays off 1200 Reps

Wyeth announced they are laying off 1200 Sales Reps. You can read the details here. The question remains...Will other Big Pharma companies follow Wyeth's lead?

AT&T CEO Complains about lack of skilled U.S. workers

The head of AT&T laments the paucity of skilled workers in the U.S. as well the quality of the American education system. You can read the story here.
Bottom line, it's hard to compete in an increasingly global economy without a skilled workforce.

Step out of your comfort zone

Liz Handlin over at Ultimate Resumes Blog has an interesting post today entitled: Stepping Out of Your Comfort Zone May Lead You to the Job of Your Dreams. You can read the entire post here.
In the post Liz discusses the recent experience of one of her clients and what he did to step out of his comfort zone. Liz writes:
"There is a saying that if you keep doing what you have always done you will get the same results that you have always gotten. The opposite is also true: if you do something different than what you have done before you will probably get different results. In the past, C [her client] took a more passive approach to his career which was pretty easy since his skills got him promoted regularly. Now, he is aggressively pursuing options that he is choosing for himself and he can't believe the results he has gotten so far."
Liz is right. Sometimes, in order to really get to the level we desire, not only in our careers but in our lives in general, we need to force ourselves to get out of our ruts...our comfort zones...and try something new.

The E.U.'s Blue Cards for Talent

One of the biggest complaints of Pharmaceutical and Biotech companies that I hear as a Recruiter is the shortage of talent in the marketplace. And, at this moment, it appears that the pool of available talent in the U.S. will only get smaller.
One of the main reasons for this shortage is the current attitude towards immigration in the U.S. America, the land of immigrants, has become decidedly anti-immigrant. While there is valid concern over the influx of illegal immigrants, especially in the Southwest, there has been a tendency to lump all immigrants under one big umbrella. Unfortunately, highly educated immigrants who come to the U.S., who attend our universities and get advanced degrees in the Sciences and Engineering, are finding it increasingly difficult to stay in the U.S. And due to the current rules regarding 'Green Cards' etc., Companies are finding it increasingly hard to hire these people. The current U.S. policies on Immigration are incredibly short-sighted.
Unfortunately, the problem could only get worse for the U.S.
In an article that appeared in InformationWeek here, Marianne Kolbasuk McGee writes:

While the United States continues to argue about whether to raise the H-1B visa cap and reform green-card processes to allow more foreign tech workers into the country, the European Union wants to make it much easier for highly skilled workers from abroad to land jobs in the EU's 27 member countries.

The EU, which is predicting a severe workforce crisis over the next several decades as its Baby Boomer generation retires, aims to attract 20 million workers from the outside in the years to come.

The EU hopes that a new proposed "blue card" will help fill that void, providing a more attractive alternative to the U.S. green-card program, which critics say is plagued by backlogs, cumbersome processes, and insufficient quotas.

In the article, Robert Hoffman, VP for Government and Public Affairs at Oracle beautifully sums up the dilemma faced by companies in the U.S.:

"Europe has sent a message. They're aggressively pursuing the professional talent they need to compete on the global stage...The Senate has unfortunately also sent a message, and it doesn't bode well for the U.S. economy."

The Contingent Workforce

I came across an interesting quote that underscores my point in an earlier post about the need for people to be more proactive in managing their careers. The quote comes from a book entitled: Headhunters - Matchmaking in the Labor Market written by William Finlay & James Coverdill [two professors of Sociology at the University of Georgia]. The book itself is an academic study of the Executive Search industry. In the book the professors write, "A vice president for human resources at AT&T argued, as his company was preparing to lay off thousands of workers, that employees needed to abandon old-fashioned notions of job security: 'People need to look at themselves as self-employed, as vendors who come to this company to see their skills. In AT&T, we have to promote the whole concept of the workforce being contingent.' He went on to suggest that even the very concept of a 'job' was outdated and that employees needed to think of their careers in terms of 'projects' and 'fields of work', for the society was becoming one that was 'jobless but not workless'.
Sage advice indeed.

IMS Health Predicts 5 to 6 Percent Growth for Global Pharmaceutical Market in 2008

IMS, a consulting and business intelligence firm for the Pharmaceutical and Healthcare industries, recently released their Annual Forecast for the Pharmaceutical industry. You can see the Press Release that details some of the findings in the report here. The reports states that 2008 will mark an important point in the history of the industry:
”In several respects, 2008 marks an important inflection point for the global pharmaceutical market,” says Murray Aitken, senior vice president, Healthcare Insight, IMS. “For the first time, the seven largest markets will contribute just half of overall pharmaceutical market growth, while seven emerging markets will contribute nearly 25 percent of growth worldwide. And, as the impact of established pharmaceuticals losing patent protection accelerates, we will see a decline for the first time in the size of the $370 - 380 billion audited market for primary care-driven drugs. In the coming year, biopharmaceutical and generics companies will more aggressively adjust their business models to manage through these inflections, capturing new opportunities in this changing market environment.”
The Pharmaceutical industry is experiencing a dynamic period. Stability is no longer a given.
The key players are changing. The old strategies for managing your career no longer apply. For example, simply joining a company in Big Pharma no longer guarantees a long stable career. Going forward, employees in the Pharmaceutical Industry will need to be more proactive in managing their careers. They will need to be more aware of the changes that are occurring in the industry. And, equally important, they will need to be aware of how those changes will impact their jobs and careers. If nothing else, the future will prove to be exciting.

The Elephant and The Dragon

I just finished a phenomenal book entitled The Elephant and The Dragon by Robyn Meredith.
In the book, Ms. Meredith does a tremendous job explaining not only the reasons behind the rise of China and India, but how their rise impacts the U.S. But Ms. Meredith does not limit her analysis to to the macro level. She also addresses how these changes in the 'World Order' will impact individual workers in the U.S. Her advice for individuals in the U.S. is that:
"Americans should expect change and embrace it, rather than expect to work in the same job for an entire career like the previous generation. Americans must be ready for disruption and willing to undergo retraining to upgrade their skills and be ready to change careers to jump on new job opportunities when they arrive...Those who successfully adapt and meet the challenges will be more likely to have stable or growing paychecks."
Sage advice for all of us as we start the New Year.