December 2008

The performance improvement process
Rick Kennison, president and general manager, PeerPoint Medical Education Institute (peerpt.com), walks through the major steps of how a performance improvement CME program is run.

Advertising agency roundtable responses
Get the full text from our panel of healthcare communications agency executives.

November 2008

Tough economy means tough staffing decisions for agencies
Recruitment and retention gets a lot of focus in good times, but for healthcare advertising agencies, finding and retaining strong talent becomes even more critical when times are bad. Talent is key to sustaining the business in tough conditions, according to Rosa Lombardo, director, human resources, Sudler & Hennessey (sudler.com). Speaking at a Nov. 20 meeting of The Healthcare Communication and Marketing Association, Ms. Lombardo talked about the importance of managing an agency’s culture in a challenging economy.

Prescription predictions get an upgrade
TargetRx's LaunchAdvantage uses data from past launches to attempt to predict a new drug's prescriptions more accurately than pre-launch surveys of doctors.

Amgen highlights denosumab, growth strategies
Amgen executives attempted to reassure shareholders Friday that the biotech is back on solid ground, insisting that the next five years will make the hard times of the last two seem like a distant memory. CEO Kevin Sharer told investors and analysts at a meeting in New York that Amgen, driven by the hopeful 2009 launch of potential osteoporosis blockbuster denosumab and no key patent expirations forthcoming, is positioned to become one of the top three drugmakers in revenue growth and earnings-per-share growth in the biopharmaceutical industry over the next five years.

Account manager ROI
Med Ad News spoke with Chris Blenk, senior principle, IMS Consulting (imshealth.com), about how companies can measure the return on investment they receive from their account management teams.

Backing the terminally ill
Patients rights groups continue to lobby on behalf of terminally ill patients for legal rights to expanded access programs.

Expanded-access programs
As of October 2008, the Website clinicaltrials.gov listed 79 investigative drugs made available through expanded-access programs. This total excludes non-drug-related procedures as well as investigational medical devices. Of the 79 programs, 19 of them are in the area of HIV infection and 29 are in the area of cancer.

Skura completes divestment deal with IMS
Skura Corp. has reached an agreement to sell a portion of its professional services organization to IMS Health for an undisclosed amount. Finalized in October, the sale will include all professional services employees and assets in Skura's life sciences, CRM, and analytics consulting division.

October 2008

Consumers research online
The online medium remains the most trusted source for healthcare information by consumers, according to an annual survey by marketing services provider Prospectiv.

Vox populi, vox Rx
With a close presidential election just around the corner, pharmaceutical vote-watchers are trying to work out what a McCain or an Obama administration might mean to the industry.

Executives on the rise
Executives with specialty-drug experience are rising through the ranks inside the pharmaceutical industry.

A healthier dialogue
Pharmaceutical marketers continue to bridge the growing communications gap between doctors and patients to improve health outcomes.

Patients in control
Med Ad News spoke with Alfred O’Neill, senior VP, group director, Ryan TrueHealth (ryantruehealth.com), to learn more about how personalized communications can help improve the physician/patient dialogue.

Career advice
Tig Conger and Kevin Butler of the retained executive search firm Heritage Partners International recently spoke with several leaders of life sciences companies who have held senior leadership positions at both big pharmaceutical companies and specialty pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies. For those managers who aspire to lead a biotechnology or specialty pharmaceutical organization, these executives have valuable advice.

2008 Patient Adherence Update: New Approaches for Success
In this issue of The Trend Report, Guideline Inc. examines the critical issue of patient non-adherence. (Note: This online version of The Trend Report features exclusive expanded content not available in the print edition of Med Ad News.)

September 2008

A Game Plan for the Alliance Management Lifecycle
The Pharmaceutical and Biotech industry has evolved and become reliant upon a business model dependent on collaborations. The dramatic increase in alliance activity has led to the formation of strategies and organizations focused on how transactions are sourced and managed to enhance product portfolios.

August 2008

Juice execs share launch expertise
As the agency behind two of the top 10 products for which 2007 represented the first full year of sales, Juice Pharma Advertising has demonstrated its ability to get new brands off the ground. Juice Pharma was the professional agency responsible for the global launch of Merck’s cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil as well as the launch of Merck’s herpes zoster vaccine Zostavax. To learn more about what factors go into successful product launches, Med Ad News spoke with Juice Pharma’s Executive VP, Managing Partner Forrest King and Executive VP, Managing Partner Lynn Macrone.

Packaging goals differ globally
Although blister packaging in Europe is used more frequently, experts say this does not necessarily mean improved patient compliance.

Targeting, step by step
Catalina Health Resource clinical director Mike Skovira spoke with Med Ad News about how the company develops and targets its messages to patients, and his role in the process.

Biotech growth rate slowing
IMS analysts expect that during the next five years the global biotechnology market will more closely parallel the traditional pharmaceutical marketplace, reflecting changing industry dynamics.

Managed Care: Trends in a Slowing Economy
In this issue of The Trend Report, Guideline Inc. looks at recent market trends that have created a challenging managed care environment. (Note: This online version of The Trend Report features exclusive expanded content not available in the print edition of Med Ad News.)

July 2008

Beat a bad rep
Med Ad News discussed the ad agency's role in managing online brand reputation issues with Lisa Flaiz VP, group director, and national pharma practice lead, and Joshua Palau, group director of search engine marketing, of the Philadelphia office of Avenue A | Razorfish.

Small companies turn to blogs
Tolerx is the first company within the small biotechnology sector to introduce a corporate blog to its Website.

June 2008

Four ways in
By using these four techniques, marketers can achieve an intimate understanding of how physicians think. By Leslie Rabin, director of account planning at AbelsonTaylor Inc. (abelsontaylor.com)

The mindset experts
Med Ad News spoke with Michael Kessler, M.D., president; and Mark Vitello, VP, program and business development, MD Mindset (mdmindset.com) to learn how a better understanding of doctors’ needs can lead to more effective use of sales reps and resources.

May 2008

Hard to predict
A variety of research techniques exist to help increase the level of certainty that a campaign will achieve its goals and objectives. Virtually all the research techniques available have value provided their underlying limitations and assumptions are fully understood. Mark Thompson, VP, senior brand planner, Palio (palio.com), an inVentiv Health company, explores the challenges of two popular techniques.

Ad icons in pharmaceutical DTC
Scott Hansen, VP, creative group director DTC, AbelsonTaylor Inc. (abelsontaylor.com), looks back at the history of iconic characters in consumer marketing and their gradual introduction into the pharmaceutical arena.

Characters have advantages in online world
Med Ad News spoke with Debrianna Obara, VP, media, with the Philadelphia office of Avenue A | Razorfish (avenuea-razorfish.com) about the importance of memorable creative in the development of digital messaging.

Video stars
The leaders of several pharmaceutical advertising agencies discuss the work they have done with online video and how their agencies are planning to use the medium in the future.

March 2008

Lower copays, better adherence
While many pharmaceutical marketers have been concentrating resources on improving patient adherence through a variety of initiatives, new research is showing that companies and employers may be missing the simplest solution to adherence problems: reduced copays.

Medical students fight marketing influence
Med Ad News spoke with Michael Ehlert, M.D., president of the American Medical Student Association, the largest independent medical student organization in the United States. AMSA has been a prominent advocate for stricter limitations against pharmaceutical marketing at medical schools; the organization is leading the PharmFree campaign, an educational effort about pharmaceutical marketing tactics that target medical students and physicians.

February 2008

Devlin leads new Concentric division
Concentric Pharma Advertising has established a new division to show its commitment to consumer advertising.

A new view for no-sees
Med Ad News spoke with Mark Gleason, senior VP, corporate development, Aptilon (aptilon.com), about how combining the telephone with Web-based applications can create an effective alternative to face-to-face detailing.

Call centers bring added value
Med Ad News spoke with MaryAnn Capritti, strategic partner, Flaum Partners (flaumpartners.com), about the advantages of using call centers to more effectively reach the physician audience. Ms. Capritti was VP of cardiovascular marketing at Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. before moving to Johnson & Johnson to manage primary care sales and marketing for several franchises including gastrointestinal, pain, mycology, and allergy products. Before joining as a strategic partner at Flaum Partners she worked as executive VP and managing partner for the Adient division of CommonHealth and as CEO of RSCG Life Chelsea.

Industry veterans head SouthPennSquare
Although they have moved on from Dorland Global Healthcare Communications, the agency’s founders have not left the healthcare industry entirely.

January 2008

GlaxoSmithKline Q&A
GlaxoSmithKline was named Best Pipeline by editors of R&D Directions and Med Ad News in their 12th annual Top 10 Pipelines report. Moncef Slaoui, Ph.D., chairman, research & development, GlaxoSmithKline, answered questions from R&D Directions about the company’s hopeful pipeline compounds, its most recent approach on Avandia, and the climate for drug development practices in general.

A look back at Agenda 2007
As 2007 opened, the Democrats’ retaking of control of Congress was at the top of mind for pharmaceutical industry observers.

Inside online marketing
Med Ad News spoke with Katy Thorbahn, senior VP and general manager, Avenue A | Razorfish (avenuea-razorfish.com) to learn more about the change in media mix spending, the rise of social networking in the pharmaceutical industry, use of video to improve content online, the explosion of health properties in search, and how the Internet is being used as more than just a direct response channel.

Eight for 2008
PricewaterhouseCoopers’ Health Research Institute foresees eight issues that will dominate health industry discussions in 2008, but the big uncertainty comes from the U.S. presidential election, as the candidates unveil very different approaches to reform the U.S. healthcare system.

10-year anniversary for RCW
Regan Campbell Ward • McCann has reached the historic milestone of its 10-year anniversary. Today, the agency has 175 employees on two coasts with a 50.17% compound annual growth rate; a client roster with some of the biggest brands in the pharmaceutical industry; and successful new media enterprises.