Category Archives: Op-Ed

Budget Cutters Propose Big Hits on Pharma

By Guest Blogger | Published: April 17, 2013
By Jill Wechsler, Washington Correspondent. The Obama administration’s budget plan for fiscal year 2014 apparently assumes that the pharmaceutical industry can support Medicare and other health programs through changes in drug coverage and payments. It also relies on industry fees to keep the Food and Drug Administration up and running. Meanwhile, FDA and other public health [...]
Also posted in Guest Blog, healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

England's Cancer Drug Fund: An Acid Test for Value Based Pricing

By Guest Blogger | Published: April 12, 2013
By Leela Barham. England’s Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) could be in its final financial year, after running in full since April 2011.  The fund covers the cost of cancer treatments either when NICE has said ‘no’, or hasn’t yet come to a view.  Companies can’t circumvent NICE though; if a company was invited to submit to [...]
Also posted in Europe, Global, Guest Blog, pricing | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

"Sunshine" Just the Tip of the Iceberg: Pharma and Full Disclosure

By Jill Wechsler | Published: April 10, 2013
“Sunshine” Just the Tip of the Iceberg: Full Disclosure for Pharma:??There seems no end to demands for data on clinical research, conflicts of interest, company payments, and drug prices, writes Jill Wechsler. Although recent legislation and regulations have greatly expanded the range of information that pharmaceutical companies have to unveil to the public, there’s an escalating [...]
Also posted in Guest Blog, Regulatory, Safety, Strategy, healthcare, pricing | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

Does India's Glivec Decision Make April Fools of Us All?

By Guest Blogger | Published: April 5, 2013
By Helen Disney, Pugatch Consilium. On April 1, India’s Supreme Court denied an appeal challenging the rejection of a patent for Novartis’s cancer drug, Glivec. The drug is a life-saving medicine for certain forms of cancer, patented in nearly 40 other countries — including many which are not noted for the strength of their intellectual property [...]
Also posted in Global, Guest Blog, IP, Legal | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

Healthcare Systems in Europe "Failing Patients"

By Guest Blogger | Published: March 27, 2013
By Reflector, Brussels correspondent. Any complacency that the world of healthcare might be feeling about advances in the ability to treat patients suffered a head-on assault in Dublin, Ireland, last week, at a conference organized under the auspices of the Irish Presidency of the European Union and featuring a galaxy of Irish and European stars from [...]
Also posted in Europe, Guest Blog, healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , | 1 Comment