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January 2009 44 1 Issue of MMM

Editor's Desk

New year, no fear

It's not unusual for the pharmaceutical industry to welcome the New Year with at least a little trepidation.

Features

MM&M All-Stars Agency of the Year: Digitas Health

Digitas Health has grown by more than 40% in each of the last two years since being acquired by Publicis-owned Digitas, but the former Medical ...

MM&M All-Stars Company of the Year: Johnson & Johnson

At a time when many pure pharmas are struggling and integration is the marketing buzzword du jour, Johnson & Johnson is steaming along with a ...

MM&M All-Stars Large Pharma Marketing Team: Crestor

Crestor has had the science on its side, but the brand has also benefited from savvy marketing, helping to vault sales of the drug 19% ...

MM&M All-Stars Small Marketing Team: Keppra

The way Tom Roberts sees it, if you're going to call yourself the epilepsy company, you better be accountable; and you better make sure that ...

MM&M All-Stars Media Brand: Everyday Health

In just over two years, Everyday Health, the flagship property of Waterfront Media, has risen to prominence in the crowded online consumer health arena.

Dollars and Sense

Santarus had quite a marketing challenge when it sought to promote its heartburn medication in a crowded marketplace. Luckily for the specialty pharma company, big-brand ...

Promise and Reality

While the debate rages whether reform should be immediate or incremental in the Obama administration, the stage is set for some landmark battles. Nancy Hicks ...

Antidote

I don't have asthma, and I am fortunate to never have had to struggle with the sudden feeling of breathlessness and helplessness that asthma can ...

In Focus

PhRMA gives DTC guidelines light retouch

Print and TV ads for erectile dysfunction drugs should appear only in programs or publications with an adult audience of 90% or more under revised ...

Media Forum

Will 2009 bring media mayhem?

What does the New Year hold for healthcare media? How might the policies of the incoming administration and new committee chairs impact advertising spend and ...

Direct Marketing

GfK reveals new sales marketing tool

GfK Market Measures unveiled a new tool designed to help pharmaceutical manufacturers to assess the value and impact of their managed markets sales and marketing ...

Sanofi-Aventis slashes hundreds of sales rep positions

Sanofi-Aventis unveiled plans to cut 10% or less of its 6,500 US sales reps.

DTC Report

DTC spend lagged in '08, says TNS

Spending on DTC launch campaigns dropped this year as companies waited longer to market fewer new drugs with more limited indications, said a TNS Media ...

Roche CEO criticizes TV advertising

Consumer advertising "was the single worst decision for the industry," according to Roche Pharmaceuticals CEO William Burns at a conference in London early last month.

FDA to test out 1-800-AERS

The FDA is weighing requiring DTC TV ads to carry a toll-free number for adverse events reports and is surveying 1,600 consumers to find out ...

Digital Media

Web Watch

What's in store for the online health business for 2009? I asked three industry thought leaders to share their views

Compass utilizes social media for rare disease

BioMarin Pharmaceuticals has tasked Compass Healthcare with the redesign of its unbranded Phenylketonuria (PKU) community website, www.PKU.com.

UnitedHealth Group enters EHR space

Health insurer UnitedHealth Group has entered the electronic health record (EHR) space with myoptumhealth.com

Public Relations

PR View by Laura Schoen

Signs of wrenching change for the industry were unmistakable even before the economic crisis.

New PR shop to offer nimble alternatives

Hoping to address PR needs in light of shrinking budgets, Shannon Troughton has launched VoxPop Public Relations, in Indianapolis.

Sanofi partnering with Maryland community

Sanofi-Aventis launched a community health partnership in Baltimore, in response to disturbing health trends among African-Americans there.

Marketing Research

Vantage Point

For most of my almost four decades in the pharma industry, the folk wisdom was that healthcare companies were immune to general economic factors since ...

Court rules against IMS, SDI on NH Rx data ban

A federal appeals court has overturned a lower court's injunction of New Hampshire's ban on commercial provision of prescription data, arguing that such restrictions do ...

SK&A broadens database coverage

Healthcare research firm SK&A has added new information and target data to its office-based physicians database, allowing clients a more precise understanding of a given ...