Industry Insight News and Discussions

According to a speech given recently by AstraZeneca PLC's Chief Executive Tom
McKillop, he feels the pharmaceutical companies that currently conduct major portions of their R&D in the US may shift a large portion of that work to China and India if the government approves drug importation. McKillop answered many questions on importation during a question and answer period. He warned that the US would catch the “European disease” of the 1990’s in which Europe lost it’s dominance in the R&D area of pharmaceuticals due in part to a number of unfavorable new policies, including parallel trading between countries.

Merck and Co continued to supply infant vaccines which contained thimerosal, a mercury based preservative for up to two years after they released statements that their infant vaccine line was free of all preservatives.

Apparently, in 1999 when the announcement was made, Merck had at that time begun to manufacturer preservative free infant vaccine, what the press release failed to note was that Merck would continue to distribute their current stock of preservative containing vaccines until the expiration date of 2002.

Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis announced recently that the FDA has accepted for filing a new drug application for Exubera (inhaled human insulin powder). This announcement is a huge step forward for the estimated 180 million people worldwide that suffer from diabetes. Anyone who has had to suffer through daily injections of insulin will tell you that an alternate method of delivery is long over due.

Eli Lilly, the U.S. market leader in insulin sales, also is developing an inhaled form of insulin, but so far Lilly is nowhere near filling with the FDA. Being first to file with the FDA could give Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis a distinct advantage when it comes to capturing and retaining market sales.

Surprisingly share prices for Pfizer and Sanofi-Aventis remained basically unchanged after the announcement. It appears investors are still very wary of pharmaceutical stocks with all the negative publicity the industry has been receiving lately.

The two largest players in their respective industries have teamed up to combat one of the most commonly complained problems, Spam. Recently, Microsoft and Pfizer filed 17 lawsuits against a number of spammers and illegitimate web sites which have been sending out millions, if not billions of emails to unsolicited customers trying to lure them into purchasing drugs. Anyone who has an email address knows that just about every other spam email is hawking some kind of drug. One of the most prominent pitches is for Pfizer’s Viagra.

The world's four main pharmaceutical trade groups have announced that they will begin to publish more data about ongoing clinical trials. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers Association, along with it’s counter parts in Europe, Japan and other developing countries will begin publishing the data sometime around summer 2005. Currently, American companies are required by law to publish information about clinical trials pertaining to life-threatening diseases. The move comes after the medical community has complained about pharmaceutical companies selectively publishing only those results that have positive results for their products.

One of the hottest topics around the country today is the debate about legalization of imported drugs. It seems like everyday another city or state governement is looking to save money by tapping into Canada's price control structure.

According to an article in The New York Times on Dec 21st by Robert Pear