2011

The Center for Devices and Radiological Health (CDRH) and the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER); responsible for regulating medical devices, have issued guidance for mobile medical applications. The guidance focuses only on a select group of applications. Meanwhile, many pharmaceutical companies, such as Janssen, are developing mobile apps for the iPhone and iPad. Can some of these apps be considered medical devices requiring approval by the FDA?

Public health officials cannot depend upon their noses to make important decisions. They need actionable real time data. How do they get it?

The pharmaceutical industry has been very generous in making payments to physicians. Last year (2010), for example, a mere dozen pharmaceutical companies paid $760 million to physicians and other health care providers for consulting, speaking, research and expenses. On average, how much do you think that comes to for every physician in the U.S.?

In a recent video titled 'What Gets PhRMA's Chairman Up Every Morning?', Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, cited an impressive Potemkin number related to life expectancy and the pharma industry.

In a recent video titled 'What Gets PhRMA's Chairman Up Every Morning?', Chris Viehbacher, CEO of Sanofi, cited an impressive Potemkin number related to life expectancy and the pharma industry.

Rules for Third-Party Engagement in Patient/Physician Social Networks. A Social Media Policy is not just an agreement that users must abide by. More importantly, it is a PROMISE to users from site owners/sponsors concerning how they will protect or attempt to protect user-generated content, personal conversations, interactions, and engagements with third-parties on the site. These policies should comply with as-yet-to-be-determined, universally accepted 'fair social media practice principles.'

More and more pharmaceutical company employees are using Twitter. Pharmaguy is looking at pharma employees who have personal Twitter accounts, how they use these accounts, who follows them and whom they follow, and how influential they are. This article is an introduction to the first round of members of this group.

Many critics of pharma-supported CME believe this support leads to bias. Between 9 May 2011 and 13 September 2011, readers of Pharma Marketing News were asked to answer a few short questions relating to potential bias in industry-supported CME programs and how to limit the need for industry funding of CME. The results are summarized in this article.

The Supreme Court has agreed to decide whether drug companies have to pay their sales representatives for working overtime hours, a question that could have considerable financial impact on the industry. The question before the court in case CHRISTOPHER V. SMITHKLINE BEECHAM CORP is whether or not pharmaceutical sales representatives are exempt from overtime pay under the 'outside sales' exemption of the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938. If the Supreme Court rules that pharma sales reps are NOT exempt, some sales reps worry that they will become

If you're thinking of developing a mobile application (app) for patients or physicians, you need to consider the myriad platforms -- hardware plus software combinations -- that are out there and determine which platform is best suited for your intended audience. Your choice of platform will impact your app's performance, maintenance, and security, which in turn will make or break the success of the app.