Worried about our persistently high rate of unemployment (and his bid for re-election), President Obama is urging Congress to pass portions of his jobs bill. In addition to aiding the economy, creating jobs could help reduce the number of people who are forgoing medications, which would be a boon for the pharmaceutical industry. Perhaps with this in mind, the Association of Clinical Research Organizations (ACRO) has thrown its weight behind a bill it says would create American jobs.

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Finding ways to fund drug development and commercialization is an ongoing task for the pharmaceutical industry. Although devising financing plans and securing  funding is a mainstay function of emerging and smaller biopharmaceutical companies, it also can  be a task for larger pharmaceutical companies as they evaluate, prioritize, and fund their pipelines and commercial drugs. A case in point is Eli Lilly, which announced this week that it has signed a deal with private investors to form a new biotechnology company with a focus on hospital-based critical care medicines.

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The Biotechnology Industry Organization (BIO) and BioMedTracker, an institutional research service, released results of a study this week that examined the success rate of drugs moving through clinical development during the last seven years. What did the study show? Key findings showed lower success rates in early-stage clinical development compared with previous years and greater success rates for large-molecule drugs compared with small-molecule drugs, two important considerations as pharmaceutical companies re-think their research and development (R&D) models. Read more »

The confetti from the New Year’s celebrations has settled, and drugmakers are busy planning their activities for 2011. Some people make New Year’s resolutions in hopes of bettering themselves or adopting good habits. After its recent disappointments, the pharmaceutical industry likely will resolve to improve its research and development (R&D) efforts. Read more »

Wall Street analysts gave Eli Lilly (Indianapolis, IN) executives the third degree last Thursday when the company presented its third-quarter results. Lilly’s revenue had increased only 2%, mostly because it had raised its prices. Although demand for its products had stayed flat, the company boosted its profits by 38% mostly through layoffs and cost-cutting measures. The patents on many of the company’s top drugs (e.g., Zyprexa and Actos) will expire in the next few years, however, and no new drugs seem poised to replace them. Analysts wanted to know how Lilly would weather the storm. Read more »

In the keynote address to a conference on Regional Innovation Clusters on Sept. 23, 2010, John C. Lechleiter, Ph.D., chairman, president, and CEO of Eli Lilly, called for federal policies that further encourage regional economic innovation as a key to renewing the nation’s economy. Lechleiter addressed a broad spectrum of policymakers, including members of the Obama administration, at a conference co-hosted by The Brookings Institution, the Center for American Progress, the Council on Competitiveness, and the National Association of Development Organizations. Read more »

In a speech before the Detroit Economic Club last week, John C. Lechleiter, chairman, president, and CEO of Eli Lilly, addressed what he regards as declining competitive scientific advantage in the US and the policies that he thinks are important for the US not to lose its position in the life sciences. Read more »

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. Read more »

In a speech last week to the City Club of San Diego, John Lechleiter, chairman and chief executive officer of Eli Lilly, offered very candid remarks about the state of innovation in the pharmaceutical industry, saying that the engine of biopharmaceutical innovation is “broken.” His comments may be a bitter pill to swallow in light of escalating investment in research and development (R&D), but his frankness may just be the remedy the industry needs to reinvent itself. Read more »

UnitedHealth Group, a Minneapolis-based healthcare company, recently announced that it would soon provide a price break to members who correctly use certain asthma and antidepressant drugs. The news was reported in a Wall Street Journal article by Peter Loftus of Dow Jones Newswires.  

To get the $20 copay discount, members must refill their prescriptions within about 30 days after their last prescription runs out. Eligible drugs include GlaxoSmithKline’s Advair, AstraZeneca’s Symbicort, Eli Lilly’s Cymbalta, Wyeth’s Effexor XR, and Wyeth’s Pristiq. The discount applies to members who have a normal copay of $50 on these drugs, meaning the new copay would be $30, according to Loftus’ article. Read more »