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Top Issues Facing Pharma (Recap from Indiana Life Sciences Forum)

October 21, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I’m a medical device guy. I know enough about pharmaceuticals to be dangerous. Actually, I know very little. My knowledge and understanding of the pharma industry increased exponentially today during the Indiana Life Sciences Forum. One of the panels was focused on Big Pharma:

Panel: Big Pharma – What are the Big Pharmas going to look like and what does that mean for the rest of us?

  • Sidney Taurel, Chairman Emeritus, Eli Lilly and Company (Confirmed)
  • William Ringo, SVP, Strategy and Business Development, Pfizer (Confirmed)
  • Jas Gidda, VP of Research and Development, Marcadia Biotech (Confirmed)
  • Matthew K. Hudes, National Managing Principal, Biotechnology, Life Sciences & Health Care, Deloitte LLP (Confirmed)
  • Moderated by:  G. Steven Burrill, CEO, Burrill & Company (Confirmed)
The closing comments from each panelist addressed the top issues big pharma needs to face in the next 10 years. Here are some of the responses:
Ringo
  • Change public perception of the pharmaceutical industry. Public perceives 60% of healthcare costs comes from pharma. In reality, it’s closer to 12%.
  • Improve productivity of research & development.
  • Figure out how to capitalize in emerging markets with established products.
Taurel
  • Improve the worldwide climate for innovation
  • Address market-based demands instead of cost-based demands
  • Establish regulatory standards / approaches for personalized medicine.
  • Adapt approach for patient outcomes.
  • Change internal thinking at big pharma companies from “ways to generate most revenue” to “what is best for the patient”.
Gidda
  • Focus on patient first.
  • Research & development.
  • Change public perception.
Hudes
  • Reform healthcare.
  • Increase mergers & acquisitions. Increase R&D.
  • Advancement of biosimilars and generics.
  • Increase spending and development in healthcare IT. $31B allocated by federal government that could be tapped by life science R&D.
Burrill
  • Change viewpoint from U.S. centric to more of a world view. Rest of world operates on single-payer system (governments).
  • Foster and finance innovation.
The panel was a group of heavy hitters in pharma. What I found most interesting about the discussion:
  1. A great deal of the discussion was about lowering costs. None mentioned value explicitly.
  2. Why hasn’t pharma ALWAYS had a patient first focus?
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