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September 2007 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

For whom the bills fall

The fierce competition to recruit talented healthcare marketing professionals is beginning to translate into numbers, according to the results of our annual Career Salary Survey.

Features

Thinking Outside the Cubicle

Agencies are taking innovative steps to retain staff, from setting up their own 'universities' that offer employees credit to taking them on Bahamian cruises. Tanya ...

Where Did They Get You?

To overcome a conventional talent shortage, many firms have taken to recruiting from other sectors, disciplines or countries, bringing whole new skill sets and diverse ...

Arming Advocates

PhRMA is attempting to train and motivate pharmaceutical company employees to defend the industry and promote the value of medicines through its PharmaCorps workshops. Warren ...

MM&M Awards: The Finalists

The MMM Awards program keeps getting bigger and better. In July, 47 top healthcare marketing and media executives spent an entire day reviewing and scoring ...

Headliner: Sam Welch of Saatchi & Saatchi Healthcare Communications

With its strong professional offerings and unparalleled consumer shop, Saatchi Saatchi Healthcare Communications might be the biggest name in healthcare advertising today.

Career & Salary Survey 2007

Pharma companies and agencies are answering the call for bigger paychecks and better working environments as the battle for top talent heats up.

Antidote

Last fall, the Centers for Disease Control vaccine advisory panel voted to make the shingles vaccination (which had been approved by the FDA in May ...

Washington Insider

As I see it

Resource-strapped though it is, the FDAs DDMAC is expanding its surveillance to cover the industrys growing use of Internet blogs and product placements in popular ...

'Flip the ad' to see proper risk balance, says FDA

Drug marketers continue to skimp on product risks in their ads, and would do well to flip the ad, reversing the benefit-to-risk balance in order ...

Lawmakers seek the removal of Glavin

FDA associate commissioner for regulatory affairs Margaret OK. Glavin should be removed from her post for sending a retaliatory all-hands memo to the agencys field ...

Patent reform bill reported to House

The House Judiciary Committee voted before the summer congressional recess to approve and send to the House a bill observers said would overhaul the US ...

PhRMA: petitions don't delay approval

While some attorneys and other observers say that drug companies often use citizen petitions as a means to delay the FDA approval of a generic ...

Nonprofit sues FDA to force Provenge approval

A nonprofit patient advocacy group has filed suit against the FDA in an Ohio federal court seeking to overturn the agencys decision earlier this year ...

Baucus and Grassley say the FDA suppresses scientific dissent

Sens. Max Baucus (D-MT) and Chuck Grassley (R-IA) say the FDA continues to suppress scientific dissent and punish agency staff who raise safety issues.

FDA orders clinical hold on Targeted Genetics trial

The FDA has ordered a clinical hold on a Targeted Genetics clinical trial involving tgAAC94, an investigational therapy indicated for treating inflammatory arthritis.

Lester Crawford's services are in demand

Demand is increasing for former FDA commissioner Lester Crawfords services now that his ethics conviction for failing to appropriately report and manage his stock holdings ...

Jazz Pharmaceuticals to pay $20 million in penalties and compensation

Jazz Pharmaceuticals will pay $20 million in penalties and victim compensation to resolve criminal and civil investigations into illegal marketing by its Orphan Medical wholly ...

Media Notepad

AMM ads promote power of journals

The Association of Medical Media, together with the American Business Media, has launched an ad campaign it hopes will help ease sharp cutbacks in primary ...

Shankland named CMPMedica CEO

CMPMedica named Sally Shankland CEO of CMPMedica US, replacing Vicki Masseria.

Falcetano named group publisher at Quadrant Healthcom

Quadrant Healthcom named Gary Falcetano group publisher for Clinician Reviews, Emergency Medicine and Urgent Care.

Schlussel Steve named Advanstar's account manager

Advanstar named Erin Schlussel Stever national account manager for the Ophthalmology Times Group, including Ophthalmology Times, Ophthalmology Times America Latina, Ophthalmology Times Europe and ophthalmologytimes.com.

Sports Medicine earns highest impact rating

Wolters Kluwer Health's Sports Medicine earned the highest impact rating in its category as judged by the Thomson Institute for Scientific Information, beating the Journal ...

Ingersoll rejoins Euro RSCG Life

Lisa Ingersoll has rejoined Euro RSCG Life.

Media Forum

Reaching multicultural consumers

When targeting Hispanic-, African- or Asian-American audiences, media must resonate and be culturally relevant.

CME Report

ACCME: Let the punishment fit the crime

The ACCME said it is committed to shoring up weaknesses identified by the Senate Finance Committee in its April report.

Researchers track Web&s presence in physician learning

Researchers tracking how physicians consume medical education online are mostly of the same mind when it comes to the growing role of eCME.

Essential Action urges industry to disclose grants and gifts

A broad coalition of public health and consumer organizations, lead by Essential Action, urged the industry to disclose all of its charitable and educational grants ...

Eli Lilly vows to extend public&s grant access globally

Eli Lilly, the first drug company to make data on its US educational grants accessible to the public, vowed to extend the policy globally by ...

Singer elected to board of Illinois Alliance for CME

Steven Singer, PhD, director of educational services, PeerPoint Medical Education Institute, has been elected to the board of the Illinois Alliance for Continuing Medical Education.

WebMD Health launches new service

WebMD Health launched a new service from Medscape that let physicians earn credit for Internet Point-of-Care learning.

Gill-Ladd hired as senior manager

Postgraduate Institute for Medicine has hired Annika Gill-Ladd as senior manager, joint sponsorship.

E-marketing

Web Watch

If your Rx Web site doesnt have a designated area for physicians, you may want to consider this in your 2008 budget.

Pfizer.com receives first makeover in three years

Pfizer has launched a refreshed consumer Web site featuring a cleaner design and new features.

Consumers trust Web for drug info

Seventy-five percent of consumers consider the Internet their most trusted source for researching drug information, a new survey shows.

Direct Marketing

DM firm expands its West Coast office

Direct marketing solutions firm Structural Graphics has increased the size of its West Coast offices and added new personnel under a recent expansion.

Sanofi sales force to undergo changes

Sanofi-Aventis possesses the flexibility to further reduce its sales force, its head of pharmaceuticals, Hanspeter Spek, said during a post-results conference call last month.

Class action suit targets Novartis

A US judge has ruled that Novartis Pharmaceuticals will have to defend itself against sex-discrimination claims brought by a group of female sales reps in ...

HealthEd announces new staff

HealthEd announced that five new staff members have joined the firm.

Lukey joins Patient Marketing Group

Theresa Lukey, has joined Patient Marketing Group as VP, strategic consulting services.

Arista Marketing Associates promotes Ulmer

Arista Marketing Associates has promoted Kara Ulmer, PharmD to director of training and QA.

Filan joins RTC Relationship Marketing

RTC Relationship Marketing hired Kris Filan as SVP/group account director.

DTC Report

Pfizer gets frisky with Viva Viagra ad

Three years after the FDA yanked its Wild Thing ads off the air, Pfizer is again taking a playful approach with a Viagra TV spot ...

Takeda sees new Rozerem tact pay off

The whimsical consumer campaign for Takedas insomnia drug Rozerem has generated lots of buzz, but not the kind of recognition that generally leads to new ...

Pfizer to launch Lyrica DTC

Pfizer plans to launch DTC promoting Lyrica for fibromyalgia in the fall, just five months after gaining approval for the condition under its "fast to ...

Smoking cessation ads prompt smokers to quit

Magazine ads for smoking cessation prompt smokers to quit even if they don't buy the products, according to a Cornell study published in the Journal ...

Cymbalta ads driving share in crowded market

Lilly said its "Depression Hurts" ad campaign for Cymbalta is working, helping drive the drug's gains in share of the crowded market.

Allergan cites DTC spending as factor in strong Q2 results

Allergan cited strong spending behind DTC and detailing as factors in reporting stronger-than-expected Q2 results.

Public Relations

PR View by Josh Shabtai

Chances are you've used Wikipedia, maybe to research a topic of interest--or to see what people are saying about your brand.

Group launches Pfizer-backed awareness effort

Spurred on by the approval of Lyrica, the National Fibromyalgia Association is launching an educational campaign to raise awareness of the disorder, which affects an ...

Ketchum names new healthcare head

Ketchum named Ann Moravick EVP and director, global healthcare and brand advocacy.

Marketing Research

Vantage Point

I have a confession. I dont go to the movies. I dont like the long lines, endless trailers for coming attractions, and Im not a ...

Nielsen combines tools for new health offering

When separate data streams are combined, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. Thats the principle Nielsen Health is banking on.

Cegedim seeks deeper US coverage

French marketing research giant Cegedim Strategic Data, which gained a US foothold by buying Dendrite International this year, entered an agreement with another US researcher.

In Focus

Hassan&s habit: dependence on lipid drugs?

Strong sales of cholesterol drugs helped Schering-Plough post a twofold increase in quarterly profit in July, but earnings may expose an over-reliance on Vytorin and ...