Content about Pharmaceutical companies

NEW YORK With an eye to the future, Novartis brass envisions a growth arena driven by the aging Boomer population — eye care, along with all of the products, medicines and surgeries associated with eye care.

Stymied by weak demand in a recessionary economy, intensifying generic competition, a relative dearth of research-and-development breakthroughs and an ongoing loss of patent protection for some of their biggest-selling pioneering medicines, branded pharmaceutical manufacturers have scrambled over the last three years to restore their once-enviable track record for product innovation and sales growth. And 2009 was no exception. Click below to download the free PDF of ECRM Branded Rx 2010.

The ubiquitous universe of social media — comprised of blogs, microblogs, podcasts, social networks, video sharing sites and more — still holds many unanswered questions for some industry marketers. But there's one thing that is certain: Social media is changing the way consumers behave, and companies and brands must embrace and effectively plug into today's social world. Those that don't will be left in the dark.

NEW YORK What’s really intriguing behind the return of a consumer division to Pfizer is the fact that two of its flagship pharmaceuticals -- Lipitor and Viagra -- are approaching patent expiration, and both have been suggested as possible Rx-to-OTC switch candidates by Kline & Co.

NEW YORK There was speculation in January that Schering-Plough’s switch application around the proton-pump inhibitor Zegerid was scuttled after receiving a complete response letter from the Food and Drug Administration.

The last few weeks have seen a lot of acquisition activity among large pharmaceutical companies.

First, Pfizer announced in January that it would acquire Wyeth for approximately $68 billion. This month saw three more mergers: Merck & Co.’s $41.1 billion purchase of Schering-Plough Corp., Roche’s $46.8 billion purchase of Genentech and Gilead Science’s purchase of CV Therapeutics.

The 1840s had the California Gold Rush. The 1990s had the tech boom. Years from now, historians might label the early 2000s the generic drugs rush. But whatever they call it, the big growth years may be behind the generic drug industry. In fact, some believe that over the course of the next five years or so, the boom even could go bust, as a shortage of big blockbuster drug launches today means a dropoff in the number of new generic introductions tomorrow — pointing to even stiffer competition for a generic drug market that grows steadily more commoditized.