http://blog.pharmtech.com The blog of Pharmaceutical Technology magazine Thu, 11 Mar 2010 14:13:14 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en It’s hard to get precise figures of how many people have been taken off the payroll at pharma and biotech companies recently. According to staffing firm, Challender, Gray and Christmas, the combined industries shed 58,969 jobs in the first nine months of 2009, 15,000 more than the whole of 2008. ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/11/life-after-big-pharma/ Company websites, news websites, other content-based websites, and microblogging sites such as Twitter, are important vehicles of communication for disseminating information. A challenge for stakeholders in the pharmaceutical industry—the public at large, patients, medical personnel, drug companies, and regulators—is to have a mechanism for how that information can be ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/09/phrma-details-its-proposal-for-internet-and-social-media-standards/ We all depend on the US Food and Drug Administration to enforce standards that keep our drugs safe. We expect the agency to set clear guidelines for consumers and manufacturers to follow. We also assume that the agency has standards for its own activities and ways of ensuring that agents ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/08/the-unregulated-regulator/ Many companies throughout industry are depending on Rx-360, the international pharmaceutical supply-chain consortium launched last year, to help ease the burden of protecting their ever-lengthening supply chains. Two goals of the consortium are now getting underway. First, Rx-360 announced earlier this week that its members are beginning to share existing sponsor ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/05/rx-360-goals-get-off-the-ground/ When most of us look at taking a new medicine we tend to think it will make us better. Some of us may think about possible side effects but few of us expect the medicines we take to actually be dangerous. Recently, the public and policymakers have become more aware ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/03/us-and-europe-at-risk-from-substandard-medicines/ Although the healthcare debate has dominated the news headlines as of late, an equally important consideration for the pharmaceutical industry is the effort by Congress to pass legislation on patent reform. Congress may be moving closing to that goal. On Feb. 25, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT), chairman of the ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/03/02/what-is-next-in-patent-reform/ The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America’s (PhRMA) announcement earlier this month that current President and CEO Billy Tauzin will step down at the end of June has raised the question of who will lead the association representing the innovator-drug industry. PhRMA says that it has already begun a ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/02/25/who-will-lead-phrma/ Attention has frequently been drawn to the complexities of getting anything done in Europe. A brilliant researcher can explore visionary horizons, an ambitious entrepreneur can offer a package of goods or services of inestimable value, but the degree of control and regulation becomes more intense every year — sometimes every ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/02/24/ombudsman-and-superman/ The health reform proposal unveiled by the White House on Feb. 22, 2010 retains a number of provisions that directly affect drug coverage and industry revenues. The plan highlights that it will close the Medicare drug benefit “doughnut hole” by 2020 to make drugs more affordable to the elderly. Seniors ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/02/22/obama-reform-plan-features-curbs-on-drug-spending/ These days, mandatory furloughs and staff cuts have employees in all industries nervously glancing over their shoulders. The pharmaceutical industry is no exception. Last week, Merck (Whitehouse Station, NJ) revealed plans to reduce its workforce by 15% by the end of 2012. The job cuts are part of the company’s ... http://blog.pharmtech.com/2010/02/22/the-unkindest-cuts-of-all/