The Pharma industry gets off to a slow start this week

The FT reports that the WHO may remove Sandoz' authorization to sell some of it's antibiotics after discovering manufacturing problems at the plant.

The Economic Times notes that Indian officals may complain to the FDA regarding the ongoing issues with drugs from Ranbaxy being banned, again over manufacturing irregularities. Interestingly, Ranbaxy have hire Rudy Guiliani to advise them on the issue.

Still on the generics front, sanofi-aventis has improved its bid for Zentiva NV to clinch the support of the Czech generic-drug company's board in a deal valued at 1.8 billion euros ($2.6 billion), according to Bloomberg.

Image via WikipediaBloomberg also declared that Taiwan banned all dairy products from China as inspectors found more cases of melamine contamination, a day after Hong Kong's two biggest supermarket chains pulled milk powder from their shelves. The scandal over melamine-tainted milk in China is linked to four infant deaths and hospitalization of 12,892 babies. Hong Kong's two largest supermarket chains, Wellcome and ParkNShop, withdrew Nestle SA's milk products after traces of the chemical were found.

Nestle yesterday said the amount was minute and wasn't considered harmful. However, the head of China's quality watchdog is reported to have resigned over the tainted baby milk scandal that has killed four children and nearly 53,000 others have now declared to be poorly.

Meanwhile, just as people thought the round of job losses and cuts in the industry had stabilised, Schering Plough announced 1,000 job losses on Friday in a bid to reduce costs, according to CNBC. Much of the downsizing will be felt in the field as they let go up to 20% of their US sales force.

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Nestle, Schering-Plough

Thought for the Day

The dog days of summer have ended and the pharma industry heads into the Fall season leaner and focused on year end targets. 'Tis is the season for getting things done.

There haven't been any blockbuster breakthroughs yet this year in the oncology or hematology space, but AACR, ASH and the San Antonio Breast Cancer conferences have yet to come.

I wonder who the eventually winners and losers for 2008 are going to be?

New tools for finding well organised information on cancer and biotechnology

One of the things I hate most about traditional search engines such as Google, Yahoo and Ask Jeeves is that they just return pages and pages of disorganised information on whatever topic you type in the search box.

There are some cool alternatives out there that organise the information by topic so that you can find what you want much more quickly and easily.

For example, I took two of these new search engines and did a search on 'biotechnology'. Here's what they produced compared to Google:

Google

Kosmix

Mahalo


What a difference!

I've started using Kosmix for more organised searches on diseases and medical related items. Try typing in something like lung cancer or breast cancer and see how well they order the results. I'm not a big Wikipedia user because some of the science and technology pages aren't that accurate - they're only as good as the writer, but Kosmix allows you to search for a wider field for interesting and accurate information, right at your fingertips.

Looking for new ways to find the latest stuff on cancer?

Or indeed any science and medicine topic?

This is one very cool online tool:

Medworm

Market Intelligence: China muscles in on pharma competition

Hot on the heels of news that Wal-Mart and Target have lowered the cost of prescriptions for cheap generics, China is preparing to compete in the generic market.

Reuters reported on the Chinese strategy as follows:

Pharmaceutical information group IMS Health Inc said last year's first okay from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a Chinese generic, a copy of AIDS drug nevirapine, was a sign of things to come.

China is already the world's biggest producer of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs), the chemical raw materials needed to manufacture medicines, but to date it has not been a significant supplier of finished generic pills.

Zhejiang Huahai Pharmaceutical Co Ltd won a U.S. green light last July to sell generic nevirapine, once the patent held by Germany's Boehringer Ingelheim expires in 2012. At least 10 other Chinese companies are set to follow suit with other generic products, according to IMS. Some could be available as early as this year. The result will be increased competition in a generic drugs industry that is already struggling with tumbling prices.

Overall, the Chinese move is expected to drive down generics prices below current market rates. After the recent heparin scare where questions were raised about the quality of the raw and integrity of materials in China, consumers and healthcare professionals may be nervous.

Market Intelligence: Pharma drug pricing

Roy Vagelos, former CEO of Merck was moved this week to comment:

“There is a shocking disparity between value and price, and it’s not sustainable. The industry will bring about government price controls which will be devastating for the industry… I don’t care what the cost is, it’s inappropriate. The industry has a black eye. And the market will correct that.”

Mick Huckman reported on the presentation on his CNBC blog.

A victory for common sense.

Vagelos did say that "Most drugs are a terrific bargain." He also believes that high prices are justified if the drug offers high value. The challenge is that greed and delusion by a few irresponsible companies will inevitably lead to not only broader price controls in the US, but much tougher regulatory hurdles such as the UK's NICE, which demands companies demonstrate pharmacoeconomic benefit, in addition to safety and efficacy.

How can anyone justify spending $50,000 for extending someone's life for less than 6 months?

That is a moot point only the patient and their family can decide.