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European Medicines Agency’s Management Board Endorses The Work Programme 2010 And Strengthens The Involvement Of Patients In The Work Of The Agency

The Board endorsed a new strategy to further involve patients and consumers in the work of the Agency. The new strategy makes a number of proposals that considerably widen the scope of patients’ and consumers’ contribution to the Agency. This includes consultation during benefit-risk evaluation of medicines, participation as observers in meetings of the Pharmacovigilance Working Party and contribution to the Agency’s safety communication.

Via MedicalNewsToday

Here is link to document issued by EMEA.

LocalClinicalTrials.com is a search engine for finding enrolling local clinical trials.  The site also provides the ability to browse for enrolling clinical trials by state and city.  Listings provided by the site appear to be extensive.

It’s no surprise people don’t like drug companies — between high prices, corporate shenanigans and side effects scandals, the industry hasn’t done itself any favors.

NYT Unintentionally Gives the Drug Industry a Reality Check | BNET Pharma Blog

A brand is a person’s gut feeling about a product, service, or company.

What’s the average person’s gut feeling about pharma today?

When enough individuals arrive at the same gut feeling, a company can be said to have a brand.

A brand is not what you say it is. It’s what your CUSTOMERS say it is.

What are people saying about pharma?

TRUST is the ultimate shortcut to a buying decision, and the bedrock of modern branding.

How do the recent Pfizer and Lilly billion dollar settlements affect the industry’s trust and brand?

Does anyone care?

Postscript: Pfizer’s Kindler advises executive soul-searching- Fierce Pharma http://bit.ly/7yMid3 – via @cafepharma

Source: The Brand Gap: Expanded Edition

Okay, so here’s part 2 of 2 of This American Life‘s production on rising healthcare costs in the U.S.  (For Part 1, see here.)  But wait, be forewarned, the opening piece in this episode is a bit rough on pharma.  Well-deserved?  You be the judge.

If you haven’t already listened to this podcast, then you absolutely must!  Part 1 of a 2-part series, this podcast helps explain some of the issues involved in reforming the U.S. healthcare system.   Extremely poignant with everything going on in Washington!

Click above to play podcast.

This American Life is a program hosted by Chicago Public Radio.

Interesting article on PharmaExec.com:  

Earlier this month, Pfizer announced that Kathryn Metcalfe would take on the position of vice president of corporate reputation and policy communications—locking up the final position of its new communications triumvirate.

Reporting to Chief Communications Officer Sally Susman (who, in turn, reports directly to CEO Jeffrey Kindler), Metcalfe faces the daunting task of repairing the reputation of a company that should be known as a provider of life saving medicine, but is more often than not considered another big business that devours its competitors and wades in cash.

Read the complete article here.

Almost two-thirds of US doctors either ban drug reps or require them to make appointments. The bad news comes from the twice-a-year survey of doctors conducted by SK&A and reported by PharmaExec.com.

Between June and December 2008, the percentage of docs who require appointments rose from 31.4 percent to 38.5 percent. The number that forbid rep access altogether went from 22.3 percent to 23.6 percent. These findings are based on telephone interviews with 227,000 medical practices representing 640,400 doctors.

Read complete article here.

Pharma outsourcing lowers costs but has significant downsides, according to the New England Journal of Medicine (and reported by the New York Times).

According to the NY Times, an article about the globalization of clinical trials published in The New England Journal of Medicine ”raises questions about the ethics and the science of increasingly conducting studies outside the United States — when the studies are meant to gather evidence for new drugs to gain approval in this country.”

Read the complete article here.

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• How to Lure Clinical Trials Back to the U.S. (blogs.wsj.com)