Two have been around in the pharmaceutical industry for a long time, and one is a relative newcomer. In considering this year’s pharma innovators to profile, the results of their accomplishments, not how long they have been around, steered the direction of this feature. Donna Murphy, global CEO of the recently formed agency network Havas Health & You; Abraham Gutman, president and CEO of AG Mednet; and C. David Nicholson, executive VP and chief R&D officer of Allergan, are being saluted for bringing new innovations to the fields of pharmaceutical advertising, clinical trial imaging and R&D, and their accomplishments are expected to echo into the future.

Humira

AbbVie’s biologic therapy Humira for autoimmune disorders continues to dominate the sales landscape; Gilead’s once-daily hepatitis C treatment Harvoni in 2016 repeated its performance as the world’s second-best-selling prescription medicine.

Just like 2016 and the year before, specialty drugs dominate the 2017 list of top performers in the most recent first year after launch class.

Med Ad News asked Adrienne Morgan and Geetiksa Prasad, the account and copy leads for Ibrance at H4B Chelsea, about their agency’s work with Pfizer’s star breast cancer brand.

The good news … is that innovation is addressing diseases with high-unmet need such as oncology, autoimmune diseases, and central nervous system (CNS) disorders. But, there is a complicating factor in the economic story: the patient population benefiting from launch brands is becoming smaller.

A listing of the the new molecular entities launched in the United States during 2015 that generated 2016 sales of at least $200 million

Leading healthcare and pharma communications professionals from around the globe convened at the fourth annual Lions Health festival on June 17-18, 2017, in Cannes, France. Key trends and issues in healthcare communications were explored during “two days of life-changing creativity.” Following are perspectives on various topics from some of the industry experts who attended this year’s event …

While the nation’s media was focusing on the unsuccessful attempts by Republicans to pass a successor to Obamacare, a fascinating sideshow has developed in nearby White Oak, Maryland, home of the Food and Drug Administration.

Decades ago, healthcare professionals along with the rest of the population were swamped with promotional direct mail. But in recent years, new technology like email, SMS, mobile applications, and AR/VR have diversified the ways in which healthcare marketers can reach physicians.

Change is inevitable, and evolving and growing with it is the only way to move forward. That’s just a fact. Those in our industry who aren’t willing to embrace the constant changes we’re seeing in technology, trends, and now how we market health and wellness brands, are going to be left behind because journal ads, banner ads and TV commercials as exclusive mediums will likely not sufficiently reach a brand’s target audiences any longer.