Articles

Welcome to the August 22, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Pharma industry spending on direct-to-consumer (DTC) advertising is at record levels. The big money is going to big media magazines while online health sites are struggling to compete. Meanwhile, FDA is seems to be seeking evidence to limit the amount of risk information in TV ads. Enough studies already!, says PhRMA in what may be an ill-timed critique.

Welcome to the August 18, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Is it a good idea to invite patients into the official social media discussion channels of major medical meetings? While results of a study summarized in this issue seem to support the usefulness of patients in helping disseminate scientific information from meetings, some experts believe opening discussions up to patients invites

Welcome to the August 15, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Within minutes of Ken Frazier's resignation from the Advisory Council, Trump lashed out at him and Merck via Twitter, not once, but twice. Meanwhile, it took Trump 2 days to specifically condemn racist and neo-nazi groups. Very sad.

Welcome to the August 8, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). I'm always on the lookout for misleading drug ads. Recently, however, I've become aware of 'fake advertising' by pharma marketers. We've all seen fake ads in weight loss commercials that use retouched photos to gain competitive advantage. But mainstream

Welcome to the August 4, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Educating physicians and patients about today's newfangled drugs is fraught with 'challenges and potential pitfalls.' The situation is exacerbated by the Internet, which competes with the information that the drug industry wishes to promulgate.

Welcome to the August 1, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Pharma scientists may be concerned about the portrayal of biopharma scientists as crazed villains in Hollywood movies, but they should be more concerned - mad as hell - about clinical and other data being hacked especially since their IT people should have been more on the ball!

Welcome to the July 28, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). The Celgene case raises an interesting pharma marketing/regulatory issue; namely, are Medical Science Liaisons being deployed by pharma as sales reps in disguise in order to market drugs off-label? Meanwhile, FDA is looking to

Welcome to the July 25, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). False and misleading drug advertising is usually the bailiwick of the FDA. But when the FDA fails to act - and even when it does - there's always litigation. An example is the recent federal court decision to award a plaintiff $150 million for punitive damages due to

Welcome to the July 21, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Computers may help the FDA speed up drug approval, and there may be many channels for pharma to reach out to patients, but some patients - especially women patients - still are not very confident that they know enough about their chronic medical conditions.

Welcome to the July 18, 2017, issue of Pharma Industry News Update (aka PinUp). Pharma has been leery of sponsoring accredited CME programs for years for various reasons. But the industry still likes to host 'speaker programs' to educate physicians without accreditation. Some of these programs, however, are nothing more than 'bribe to prescribe' events.