Content about pharmaceutical

DEERFIELD, Ill. — Walgreens on Monday rounded out the pharmacy purchasing team led by Jeff Berkowitz, who joined Walgreens in the fall as SVP pharmaceutical development and market access. The team reporting to Berkowitz includes Walgreen veterans Frank DeStefano, Mike Bleser and Mike Allen, as well as newcomers Jeff Foreman and Gary Gleeson.

Following are the responsibilities each will be covering:

DUBLIN, Ohio — Second-quarter revenue for Cardinal Health rose 2%, thanks in part to its acquisition of pharmaceutical distributor Kinray.

Revenue for the quarter ended Dec. 31, 2010, totaled $25.4 billion, compared with the prior-year period. Similarly, Cardinal Health's earnings per share from continuing operations jumped 21% to 69 cents.

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — A pharmaceutical wholesaler has promoted one of its executives.

H. D. Smith said Harvey Tanenbaum — an industry veteran with more than 30 years of experience — now will serve as the company's EVP, responsible for all efforts connected to metro New York area expansion.

WASHINGTON — 3D Communications on Tuesday announced that Virginia Cox will join its team of communication and healthcare experts, effective Feb. 1.

Cox comes to 3D from the Consumer Healthcare Products Association, where she was SVP communications and strategic initiatives. Cox served as the chief strategist for the association’s external communications efforts surrounding regulatory and legislative issues impacting the pharmaceutical industry.

FLORHAM PARK, N.J. — Pfizer president and general manager for specialty care and oncology, Geno Germano, will deliver the “State of the Pharma/Biotech Industry Address” at the 2011 Armada Specialty Pharmacy Summit, Armada Health Care said Tuesday.

The summit, which will take place in Las Vegas in May, is in its seventh year and is expected to bring 1,500 participants representing 400 specialty healthcare organizations, including specialty pharmacy providers, pharmaceutical and biotech companies, wholesale distributors and others.

WHITESTONE, N.Y. — Call him “Stewie Rah Rah.” He doesn’t mind. Stewart Rahr, the man in the bright yellow sunglasses who led Kinray to become the nation’s top independently owned pharmaceutical wholesaler, soon will have more time for his other interests.

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Drugs for bacterial infections and cancer, and one that could help shape regulations for biosimilars, are featured in the Food and Drug Administration’s annual "Generic Drug Roundup."

The roundup is an annual highlighting of what the agency considers the most significant generic drug approvals.

MINNETONKA, Minn. — Could the economy and the bare-knuckles competition that now defines pharmacy retailing lower the price bar even further for widely used generic drugs? It’s already happening.


NEW YORK The pharmaceutical lobby spent more than $5 million lobbying the government during the third quarter, according to published reports.

Based on a filing with the government, BusinessWeek reported that the Pharmaceutical Research and Manufacturers of America spent $5.2 million lobbying on issues ranging from healthcare legislation to drug importation and marketing.

This compared with $6.8 million in third quarter 2009, according to the magazine.

DUBLIN, Ohio Cardinal Health is looking to expand the pharmaceutical segment of its business by acquiring a pharmaceutical distributor serving the New York metropolitan area.

The company said its acquisition of Kinray for $1.3 billion in an all-cash transaction would significantly expand its ability to serve retail independent pharmacies in the northeastern United States. Kinray currently serves more than 2,000 retail independent pharmacy customers as a distributor of both branded and generic pharmaceuticals.

CHICAGO — A social media go-to-market strategy is fast becoming a must-have for companies these days, especially those companies operating in the healthcare arena. It’s no longer enough to push patient education out through a branded online page, not with the growing prominence of social media sites. Today, companies need to seed that education across Facebook and Twitter and/or actively engage bloggers and heavy users to successfully get that education out to the masses online.

ROCKVILLE, Md. — A backlog of more than 2,000 drug entities and devices is awaiting approval. That’s the situation facing the Food and Drug Administration and the generic pharmaceutical industry—and it’s the chief impetus behind the FDA’s push to impose user fees on generic drug makers seeking the agency’s review and approval for their brand-equivalent medicines.