Pharmaceutical R&D productivity hasn't always been an oxymoron. What has gone wrong, and how to improve it, was the subject of a Bernstein Research investor conference in May that pulled together eight industry experts from a variety of backgrounds.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act turned one in March, and it was, for the drug industry, an ambivalent occasion.

An Abbott iPhone app is drawing attention to the practice of compensating bloggers for app reviews, as some call into question the ethics of pay-for-play PR.

A former Merck exec says it's time to wind down a product advertising arms race that he says hurts pharma firms more than it helps them.

The FDA's point-man on prescription drugs, principal deputy commissioner Joshua Sharfstein, left the agency to head up public health in his home state of Maryland.

The FDA stretched out the timing of approvals last year as the safety concerns made it increasingly hard to take a yes-no stand on pipeline drugs. Of those drugs that were approved, sales projections have been largely disappointing.

A love-hate relationship for Coumadin is playing out online, say authors of a new report that may offer lessons for marketers of new blood-thinning products.

Pfizer's $3.6 billion acquisition of King Pharmaceuticals will expand Pfizer's portfolio in the pain category, adding Embeda, Avinza and the Flector Patch to Pfizer's Lyrica and Celebrex products.

A new report whose findings could have profound implications for adverse events reporting says patients began discussing the risks of GlaxoSmithKline diabetes drug Avandia in online forums and blogs well before a meta-analysis linked it to higher heart-attack risk.

It was lunchtime on day two of ExL's pharma public relations conference at Pfizer headquarters, and the host, Pfizer PR chief Ray Kerins, took the podium to vent some steam with his fellow flacks.