As the White House and Congress battle the looming deadline to raise the country’s debt ceiling, what are the potential implications of the various debt-reduction proposals on the pharmaceutical industry? Read more »

A recent survey by the management-consulting firm Accenture shows that US consumers seeking medical advice turn to medical websites, social-media sites, online communities, and informational websites in far greater numbers than they turn to the websites of pharmaceutical companies. The survey results underscore an important question for pharmaceutical companies: namely, how to use new media more actively in their own communication while ensuring the overall quality of online information for  pharmaceuticals. Read more »

Recently, the US Senate voted against a bill that would have made permanent the research and development (R&D) tax credit, thus dealing a blow to one of the pharmaceutical industry’s legislative priorities. The Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America and the Biotechnology Industry Organization have been agitating for Congress to make the R&D tax credit permanent. They argue that it would promote job growth. We certainly need it, but would the tax credit achieve this goal? Recent history seems to indicate otherwise. Read more »

The legislative battle for healthcare reform ended on Thursday night Mar. 25 following the passage by both houses of Congress of a slightly amended version of “The Healthcare and Education Reconciliation Act” (HR 4872), the so-called “fixer bill” to the “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act” (HR 3590), the healthcare reform legislation that was passed by the US House of Representatives on Sunday Mar. 21 and signed into law (Public Law No,111-148) by President Barack Obama on Tuesday Mar. 23. The reconciliation legislation (HR 4872) now goes to the President for his signature, which would clear the last hurdle for healthcare reform after a grueling week of intense debate and parliamentary efforts to both advance and stop final passage. The debate on the myriad of measures in the healthcare reform package will no doubt continue, but as the dust settles, at least momentarily, what are some of the implications for the pharmaceutical and biotechnology industries? Read more »

I’ve written previously about the potential health dangers that discarded drugs pose to our water supply. This year, 13 states are considering bills that would create drug take-back programs. Maine’s House of Representatives recently endorsed a plan that would require drug manufacturers to set up and operate programs to collect, transport, manage, and dispose of unwanted drugs. Read more »

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 effectively and responsibly communicated. Read more »

The US Senate’s vote this past weekend to proceed with debate on a legislative proposal for healthcare reform portends—what by all accounts—promises to be yet another rigorous round of policy and political opinion. A Google search for the past week alone shows that almost 500,000 blogs (459,049 at the time of posting of this blog) have been posted in response to the Senate’s action to move forward with considering healthcare reform. In the swirl of this public opinion, where does the pharmaceutical industry stand? Read more »

A new study published in the American Journal of Public Health claims that prescription drug direct-to-consumer advertising (DTCA) can be harmful to a person’s health. According to the researchers, prescription drug advertisements are “not doing a good job of helping consumers to make better decisions about their health”. Read more »

The proliferation of online health information and media vehicles such as blogs and social-networking sites create a new problem for the consumer—how to judge the reliability of such information. To address that problem, the US Food and Drug Administration is holding hearings this week, Nov. 12–13, in Washington DC, regarding the promotion of FDA-regulated medical products using the Internet and social-media tools. The hearings, which will include participation from pharmaceutical trade associations, drug companies, consumer groups, and media representatives, is the first step in a public dialogue that FDA is having as it evaluates how the statutory provisions, regulations, and policies concerning advertising and promotional labeling should be applied to product-related information on the Internet and newer media technologies. Read more »

After much ado, the US House of Representatives passed a healthcare-reform bill this weekend. Drugmakers and commentators are understandably eager to parse the bill to find out what it would mean for the pharmaceutical and biopharmaceutical industries. So what’s the verdict? Read more »