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August 2009 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

Who are they to judge?

It was 8:30 am on Monday, July 13, at the Warwick Hotel in the heart of the Big Apple and most of the 41 healthcare ...

Features

Medical Education Report: Course Correction

Certified and accredited CME has undergone a sea-change in recent years, with policies now in place emphasizing quality and leaving little room for bias (not ...

2009 Med Ed Review

With increased regulatory scrutiny and a slow-down in new product approvals already constricting budgets, the last thing the medical education sector needed was a deep ...

Predicting Product Launch Success: An Ace in the Whole

Can pharma companies really predict the success of new product launches? Patrick Howie and Mike Luby report on how pharmas can hone in on physicians' ...

Making Marketing Dollars Count: Made to Measure

In an age of accountability, where every dollar counts, Deborah Dick-Rath talks to industry insiders about how they can make a measurable difference in their ...

Headliner: Eli Lilly's Bart Peterson

Eli Lilly's new head of public relations, Bart Peterson, says most Americans agree that healthcare reform is way past due, and believes at least the ...

Antidote

Antidote: The misunderstanding surrounding propofol

Propofol is an extremely effective anesthetic which is manufactured as an emulsion and is delivered intravenously. AsraZeneca made the first useful version in 1986 (Diprivan), ...

In Focus

PhRMA pledges $80B toward drug savings

PhRMA has committed to finding $80 billion in savings on drugs sold in the US over 10 years, including selling drugs at half-price to seniors ...

Professional Marketing

inVentiv to provide team for Keltman

inVentiv Selling Solutions, will begin providing a sales personnel to Keltman Pharmaceuticals, a wholesale pharmaceutical company specializing in re-packaged medications for physician dispensing.

GfK unveils BEAT to position brands

GfK launched Brand BEAT (Brand Equity Assessment & Tracking), a complete package of healthcare-specific brand positioning diagnostic tools for measuring the cognitive and emotional strengths ...

Torre Lazur wins AOR for Entereg

Torre Lazur McCann Healthcare Group was named AOR for Entereg--the first and only FDA-approved agent indicated to accelerate the time to upper and lower GI ...

Professional Marketing briefs

Featuring news about Romark Laboratories, Alinia, Roche and Epocrates

Med Ed Report

Med Ed Report briefs

Featuring news about the ACCME, the Association for Clinical Researchers and Educators, SACME and the Association of American Medical Colleges

Pharma-free CME gets sharp response

ACCME was surprised by the vociferous response to its June 11 call for comment on several proposals, including one that would establish a "pharma-free" label ...

Healthcare reform bill clears House

The House of Representatives' version of the healthcare reform bill, dubbed the America's Affordable Health Choices Act of 2009, includes the provisions of the Physician ...

Roche coaches docs, RNs on diabetes

Roche added a new component to its $14 million diabetes education campaign, which pairs healthcare practitioners with Roche staff to improve dialogue between diabetic patients ...

Professional Media

CMPMedica shutters two journals

CMPMedica ceased publication on two of its titles--Infections in Medicine and AIDS Reader--due to a continuing decline in print advertising sales.

Grassley asks for ghostwriting info

Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA) asked eight journals to provide information about their medical ghostwriting practices and policies, in an effort to "shed light on the ...

Professional Media briefs

Featuring news about the American Society of Health-System Pharmacists, e-Healthcare Solutions, ReachMD and Informa Healthcare

Media Forum

Will digital budgets ever match TV?

Will media budgets trend toward digital and away from televised DTC this year, as several pharmaceutical executives have intoned? Or will digital media continue to ...

Digital Media

Bayer work a blueprint for health site

DazMedia hopes to leverage its interactive work with Bayer on Betaseron, an MS treatment, into other product and condition areas for a new website: Real ...

Digital Media briefs

Featuring news from the National Institute of Health, the Wikimedia Foundation, dLife, UnitedHealth Group, Cisco and Connected Care

Rookie network adds veteran CEO

Two-year-old health network Good Health Advertising (GHA) tapped Bill Jennings, an interactive sales expert, as its new CEO.

Consumer Marketing

DTC ads driving fewer to physicians, says survey

Consumers are less likely to seek information about prescription medications and to talk to their doctors about advertised drugs than they were last year, according ...

DDR on DTC: Latisse

Every year, women spend millions of dollars on mascara to exaggerate their eyelashes.

Networks take stand vs. ad tax

Broadcasters joined the drug industry in opposing a proposed scheme to end tax deductions on advertising for drug companies.

AZ rebranded effort: 'Rethink COPD'

AstraZeneca is rolling out an unbranded COPD education campaign featuring comedian and actor Robert Klein. The campaign, dubbed Rethink COPD, is aimed at getting sufferers to ...

J&J puts gastric band on YouTube

Johnson & Johnson's Ethicon Endo-Surgery is pairing consumer outreach on YouTube and Facebook with an online clinical support tool for its Realize adjustable gastric band.

Featuring news about Boehringer Ingelheim, National Women's Health Resource Center, Association of Reproductive Health Professionals, SCA Personal Care North America, Men's Health Network, Novo Nordisk ...

Marketing Research

Vantage Point: Should prescribing behavior be private?

What data about healthcare provider behavior should be private?  Given the overall increases in healthcare costs, should data about individual physicians be subject to the ...

Supreme Court shrugs at NH prescription data ban

The Supreme Court will not take on a New Hampshire data ban originally enacted in 2006, overturned 10 months later by a district court, and ...

Wolters Kluwer new integration tool

A new service from Wolters Kluwer Health integrates several of the marketing research firm's data points into a single source, offering financial analysts and brand ...

Agency Business

Agency Business briefs

Featuring news from imc² health & wellness, MicroMass, Interpublic Group, Kluster and Sudler & Hennessey

Ketchum and Pleon plan megamerger

Billed as one of the largest mergers in PR history, Ketchum announced plans to merge with Omnicom's Pleon, a communications and consultancy shop headquartered in ...

SK&A launches services for firms

Marketing research firm SK&A launched a healthcare agency service team to provide tailored solutions to healthcare and pharma ad agencies.

Washington Insider

As I see it: Don't knock new drugs until you try them

Often we hear of the dangers surrounding industry physician collaboration—that drugs can be "over prescribed," and that new drugs cost more than old ones. But ...

FDA hears transparency boost ideas

At its first public hearing in June, the FDA's new Transparency Task Force heard diverse ideas ranging from greater news media access to FDA staff ...

FTC chief calls for a ban on generic pay-for-delay deals

In the wake of an FTC report that so-called "authorized generics" lower prices, commission chairman Jon Leibowitz says Congress should pass pending legislation to ban ...

Viewpoint

Social media initiatives help build relationships

For the past three years, my colleagues and I in the Johnson & Johnson corporate communication group have been taking steps to get the company ...

Buyer beware: behavioral science vs. behavioral marketing

In the digital world, new buzz words sprout and spread faster than the crabgrass in my lawn. One of those recent buzz words is behavioral ...

Back Talk

Social media rules for pharmas

At a recent conference, I told two perplexed-looking FDA attendees that I thought pharma has a distinct advantage with social media, because we're used to ...