Author Archives: Joanna Breitstein

So Long and Thanks for the Memories

By Joanna Breitstein | Published: May 4, 2009
To our readers—and friends, After almost nine years of working at Pharm Exec magazine, it’s time for me to move on. I have a new career opportunity in global health, but I couldn’t leave without telling you that I’ll miss you. Pharm Exec was my first writing and editing gig and, when I joined, I knew next [...]
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Amid Big Pharma Woes, Shire in “Best Shape Ever”

By Joanna Breitstein | Published: November 17, 2008
Angus Russell, Shire’s longtime CFO—now CEO—likens the failing US automobile industry to pharma. “All the problems with the automobile industry were a long time coming,” he says. “It’s just that the SUVs and the relatively cheap price of gas created a bubble, just like a booming economy and blockbusters.” But now that the bubble has burst, [...]
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Conversation with Eisai’s Lonnel Coats

By Joanna Breitstein | Published: November 7, 2008
“The phones are ringing,” said Lonnel Coats, president of Eisai and a plenary speaker here at HBA’s Leadership Conference. “There’s a lot more opportunity, but also a lot more white noise.” Coats is referring to the pressure that cash-strapped biotechs are feeling to sell out and says he gets no less than five calls a day [...]
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HBA Leadership Conference: Day 1

By Joanna Breitstein | Published: November 7, 2008
Reporting to you from Chicago at the Sixth Annual Healthcare Businesswomen’s Association leadership conference, where the story—set in this city of the new US President—is all about change. The Pharm Exec crew arrived in a surprisingly tranquil Windy City—the only explanation that it was the calm after the storm of Tuesday’s election. Certainly, many HBA members [...]
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Heat From FDAAA: Time For New GPP

By Joanna Breitstein | Published: October 29, 2008
Good Publication Practice, or GPP, is often the first port-of-call for companies publishing in the biomedical sector. But consider this. The first ideas for GPP were formed a decade ago, and now the time is right for GPP2: the new, revised Good Publication Practice. Why now? Pharma publication practice is a hot potato. Purported cases of publication-related [...]
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