Author Archives: Patrick Clinton

Gilead Tops the BusinessWeek 50

By Patrick Clinton | Published: April 2, 2009
The best-performing company of them all? Well, according to BusinessWeek, it’s a biopharmaceutical company, Gilead Sciences, which placed first in the annual BusinessWeek 50. The company posted some impressive numbers: a 48.6 percent pretax profit as a percentage of average invested capital (taken as an average of the last three years), 38.2 average annual sales [...]
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Preemption Watch: You've Been Warned

By Patrick Clinton | Published: March 5, 2009
The Supreme Court on Wednesday issued its decision in the much-watched case of Wyeth v. Levine—which many in pharma hoped would firmly establish FDA decisions as a bulwark against common-law liability suits in state courts. The decision, as you’ve no doubt heard already, went against Wyeth. Pharm Exec’s coverage is here. The opinion is here. [...]
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When the Condition You Treat is High Costs

By Patrick Clinton | Published: February 13, 2009
An unmet medical need isn’t always an untreatable disease. Sometimes it’s a glitch in the healthcare system that can be made to work better by the application of just the right molecule. That was the take-away from a conversation I had the other day with John Babich, a noted radiologist and CEO of the Cambridge, MA-based [...]
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Eliminate Waste (Whatever That Is)

By Patrick Clinton | Published: October 30, 2008
There’s a fascinating editorial in this week’s New England Journal of Medicine by Henry J. Aaron, a healthcare economist at the Brookings Institution. Aaron argues that on average healtchare spending is not wasteful, since its benefits exceed its costs. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t waste. The trick, though, is to identify it, and as [...]
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Now in Video, the Prix Galien Winners

By Patrick Clinton | Published: October 16, 2008
At the Prix Galien awards ceremony last month, I had the opportunity to interview the winners on camera. We’ve just posted edited versions of the interviews here. Inspiring stories, remarkable people (and some great-looking tuxes). Enjoy.
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