Pharma Strategy Blog

Why do people hate the Pharma industry so much?

Hat tip to my buddy Samy for sharing this one:

Source: Non Sequitur, Houston Chronicle 

Why did Roche's Avastin lose steam in 4th quarter 2009?

This snippet from Reuters posted earlier this week while I was listening to the Roche earnings call in Basle, which was a nicely put together presentation:

"Roche Holding AG overhauled the sales efforts for its best-selling drug, the Avastin cancer treatment, after the company “lost steam” during the fourth quarter.  

Sales of the medicine were hurt by a focus on selling it as a treatment for breast tumors, Pascal Soriot, the head of the pharmaceuticals division, said in an interview today.  The company beefed up marketing by assigning the sales team responsible for the Herceptin breast cancer drug to also promote Avastin, while the group that sells the Xeloda therapy will promote it for use against colorectal cancer, he said. 

“We focused on breast and then kind of lost steam on lung cancer a little bit,” Soriot said at Roche headquarters in Basel, Switzerland. “We’ll increase the promotional effort and I think we’re going to turn this around.”"

Sadly, though, this is not something that was unexpected, as many of us industry observers were secretly wondering how Genentech would fare once absorbed in the more conservative Roche system.  One is very science based and the other is more corporate.  

Just take a look at the two management teams and you get the big picture:

In the top picture, you see the Roche management team individually taken and in suits, but look like they have taken their ties off just for the photoshoot to make them a little less stiff and formal, perhaps. 

In the bottom picture, the Genentech management team, taken as a team in fairly casual attire, with the CEO, Ian Clark, even wearing a fleece!

A tale of two very different cultures in one quick glance.

What impact does this have on the physicians?  I asked around.  Now, lung cancer doctors are fairly academic and science based, many also do translational research, for example.  Underneath they are generally approachable, fun and always willing to answer questions or help people understand a complex topic. They're much more easy going than some of the other cancer specialties.

Which group do you think they would most likely mix with?

Therein lies the rub.  

Corporate suits may look sharp, but do they engage and have fun with the scientists, or even understand their world?  How much of a subtle impact might that have in the long run?  While it is true that in the end, all marketing is ultimately about sales, the intangibles such as how you approach it and engage with customers along the way is often crucial to success.

Time to stop drinking the corporate Kool Aid and focus on the science, methinks.

   

Why I read PharmaGossip on Fridays

Because he makes me laugh out loud with posts like this:

No, I'm not going to spoil the fun - go and check out his story here.

This years tweet cloud

Many of you will know that I'm fascinated by text and data mining - once a scientist, always a scientist!  Everyone seems to have been checking out their tweet cloud's based on their Twitter stream so I thought I would check mine out too. 

Here's what I got:

Source: http://tweetcloud.icodeforlove.com/MaverickNY/212859

Buzzword bingo at AACR

After typing a short, but thoughtful, piece into the Typepad mobile app on the iPhone, it crashed into the cyber ether before I could send or save it.  Arrrgh!

It's always difficult restarting and retracing steps from scratch because the whole point of the mobile app is that it allows you to capture those sudden brainwaves and quick thoughts so easily.  Maybe next time I'll stick to audio and posting it via Posterous instead.  This made me realise that what we really need is a service that does a transcript of audio for say, a report or blog post, and allows editing before posting.  Boy, would that make my life so much easier! 

Image via CrunchBase

Maybe such an app already exists on the iPhone for capturing 10-15 mins of dictation, but the ones I've tried to date either rely on shorter timescales (Jott and ReQall) or can record 5-10mins, but offer no transcript (AudioBoo, iPhone Voice Memos).  This is something that would be really useful business-wise too.

If you know of something suitable for iPhone transcription, do send me a DM on Twitter (to @MaverickNY) or post a comment below.

Anyway </rant>, the purpose of today's post was originally to look at the topline trends and strategies emerging in oncology research based on 'buzzword bingo' that fun game we all play to lighten the mood while still keeping the essence of something.

Here are some buzzwords that cropped up time and time again this week in Boston at the AACR molecular targets in cancer therapeutics meeting based on almost 60 pages of tightly written notes (or spidery chicken scratch if you prefer):

• Heterogeneous
• Predictive biomarkers
• Prognostic biomarkers
• Molecular vulnerability
• Adaptive resistance
• Anything on PI3K/AKT/MEK/mTOR/RAS/RAS (double points)
• Escape route for cancer cell (triple points)

However, my favourite and probably most used phrase of the meeting was:

• Synthetic Lethality

Turns out that the term is not new, having been first described by Dobzhansky in 1946.  It essentially describes the situation whereby:

"A genetic interaction where the combination of mutations in two or more genes leads to cell death. The implications of synthetic lethal screens have been discussed in the context of drug development as synthetic lethal pairs could be used to selectively kill cancer cells, but leave normal cells relatively unharmed."

Source: Le Meur and Gentleman, 2008

In other words, either gene alone may not have much effect, but both together lead to apoptosis.

One of the most most prominent drug classes associated with synthetic lethality this week was the PARP inhibitors, particularly olaparib, an exciting new agent from KuDos/AstraZeneca that targets BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations seen in breast and ovarian cancer. 

During one of the poster sessions, I spoke with KuDos' Chief Scientist, Mark O'Connor, who explained the concept of synthetic lethality even more simply.  He suggested thinking of the cancer cell as a table with 4 legs and then suddenly removing one leg (the two gene effect).  The result would be a rather unstable situation with a peculiar vulnerability.  I rather liked that visual metaphor.

Do check out the Pharma Strategy blog over the next few days for updated posts and commentary from AACR around new themes and research on prostate, lung, breast and ovarian cancers.

Related articles by Zemanta

• What's new at AACR on molecular targeting and biomarkers? (pharmastrategyblog.com)
• New drug 'can treat more cancers' (news.bbc.co.uk)

Friday afternoon fun

Recently, I was talking with a client about how we use social media for competitive intelligence gathering and the importance of aggregating RSS feeds from blogs, alerts, newswires and journals etc to create a living database that can be searched for useful information.  The data gathered can be used for market surveillance and landscape opportunity assessments.  I showed them some snippets based on their area of interest and thankfully, it produced some useful information they didn't know.  They seemed suitably impressed.

As the conversation continued, we discussed the value of continuous learning and how we get smarter by reading great blogs from other people.  Then I got floored with a neat question; "which blogs do you actually read every day and enjoy?"

This brings me to the topic of this weeks Friday afternoon fun - putting other people in spotlight.

Although I aggregate a lot of feeds, I don't actually read them all and instead use them for search purposes.  On my Mac Mail, however, is a nifty feature that allows me to import RSS feeds of blogs I enjoy reading daily, like this:

As new blogs are posted, a number to the right indicates how many are unread.  This makes it easier to track new posts.

I also use the Notes feature above the RSS to jot quick thoughts and ideas to myself around things I find interesting.  These are synced with my iPhone and important topics I also email to my Evernote database partly as a backup and partly because I also use its awesome search features in conjunction with the RSS search.

So, what do I read daily?  An eclectic mix from science, medicine, tech, finance, economics, food and of course, pharma and biotech.  This list is continually refined with new ones added and old ones deleted.  For me, though, they're interesting and thoughtful people and I learn a lot from smarter people who take the time to think and write about a wide range of things.

Check them out, you may find some new ones you like too.

Blog Action Day 2009: Climate Change

So here we are in 2009 and it's time for the annual blog action day where thousands of people write about a cause and hope for change, or at least, conversation.  This year the topic is climate change.  When it was first announced, my first thoughts were to wonder how on earth this important topic could be incorporated into a blog about pharma strategy and cancer biology?

First things first, though. 

One of my favourite blogs about this topic is GreenMonk and you can also follow the enigmatic Tom Raftery on Twitter.  GreenMonk not only writes a great blog but also offers advisory services to help a range of organisations better understand how sustainability issues will affect them.  They provide a lot of useful tips and ideas that even small businesses and consulting companies like Icarus can learn from.  After a post from them a while ago challenging us why did we need to print things out all the time, I ditched the fax machine and bought a desktop scanner and reduced the amount of paper needed both ends in one fell swoop.  It also makes for much better archiving and search abilities from a business perspective, quite aside from the 'green' aspect.

Still, there are some things that will never change, just like the dinosaurs until extinction threatens.

Three of the least adaptive and flexible organisations I've ever come across are big Pharma companies, BIO, the biotechnology industry organisation and the FDA.  Whether you're a pterydactyl or a T.rex, it really doesn't matter; things only change when the major climatic shifts force adaptation instead of constant hand wringing, or even worse, seeming obliviousness in the face of the obvious. Biotechnology companies are smaller, nimbler, more innovative and much more open to new technology, new ideas and risk taking, which is where much of the new pipeline shelves will be stocked from.

Ah well, meanwhile I'll get on with my research and watch the social media and Google Waves drive greater customer service and engagement in small pockets; the question is who will be smarter and faster in the battle of the giants to win the hearts and minds of customers in the new media age?

The impact of social media on Pharma

This short and simple Slideshare story tells a wonderful parable that could be just as true for Pharma and Biotech, as it is for big and small business.  As more and more people use the internet creatively in the Digital Age, things are a-changing:

Corporate Life

View more Microsoft Word documents from Thiago S.

The moral of the story?   Adapt to change or die. 

Do your research and figure out how to survive in the new Digital Age.  There are plenty of new tools out there to help with this.  Imagine you can listen to customer and consumer sentiments about your brand in real time.... scary or fun?


 

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On Pharma licensing and business development

One of the big challenges with oncology at the moment is the sheer proliferation of pathways, targets and opportunities as this slide about IGF-1R and related pathways from Dr Andrew Godwin at Fox Chase Cancer Center at the ASCO 2008 meeting shows:

There are, of course, many other pathways and possible kinase targets.  Nobody really knows which ones will be useful or critical in which tumours, however, so the whole process of R&D becomes a crapshoot.

Which means that when business development and licensing departments meet with their clinical and marketing counterparts to discuss opportunities, this is inevitably the situation that arises:

Quote of the Day - an inspiring thought

"People are like stained-glass windows.  They sparkle and shine when the sun is out, but when the darkness sets in, their true beauty is revealed only if there is a light from within."

Elizabeth Kubler Ross

Image via Wikipedia

9rules... wow, a nice surprise!

After the recent euphoria of making it onto Alltop, this week I found out that the blog has made the latest round of 9rules, an independent website for cool and well written web content. 

I applied last November for the first time and having checked out the Round 7 winners afterwards, I really wasn't expecting to get in and considered it a very long shot indeed especially for a site that is essentially a specialist niche within a niche.  Imagine my surprise when I find out this blog made it onto the list, especially while recovering from flu and a nasty cold!  Hopefully, it will end up in the science section soon.  But, hey I'm certainly looking forward to finding and reading some new blogs for my Google Reader myself.  It's great fun learning from smart people, it's the fastest way I learn new things.

Check out the 9rules link above for yourself and see if any of the blogs listed take your fancy, there certainly were some superb ones in the list.  Mine must have been the ringer ;-), but seriously, it's a great site with some excellent content in all sorts of categories.

Time is the most priceless commodity we have, especially for cancer patients

Today's Thought for the Day comes in the form of a story a friend shared with me.  It made me think about my own family and the many friends who are going through cancer treatment right now.  Sometimes we need to stop and smell the roses and think about what is really important to us.

A man came home from work late, tired and irritated, to find his 5-year old son waiting for him at the door. 

SON: 'Daddy, may I ask you a question?' 

DAD: 'Yeah sure, what it is?' replied the man. 

SON: 'Daddy, how much do you make an hour?' 

DAD: 'That's none of your business. Why do you ask such a thing?' the man said angrily. 

SON: 'I just want to know. Please tell me, how much do you make an hour?' 

DAD: 'If you must know, I make $50 an hour.' 

SON: 'Oh,' the little boy replied, with his head down. 

SON: 'Daddy, may I please borrow $25?' 

The father was furious, 'If the only reason you asked that is so you can borrow some money to buy a silly toy or some other nonsense, then you march yourself straight to your room and go to bed. Think about why you are being so selfish. I don't work hard everyday for such childish frivolities.' 

The little boy quietly went to his room and shut the door. 

The man sat down and started to get even angrier about the little boy's questions. How dare he ask such questions only to get some money? 

After about an hour or so, the man had calmed down , and started to think: 

Maybe there was something he really needed to buy with that $25.00 and he really didn't ask for money very often. The man went to the door of the little boy's room and opened the door. 

'Are you asleep, son?' He asked. 

'No daddy, I'm awake,' replied the boy. 

'I've been thinking, maybe I was too hard on you earlier' said the man. 'It's been a long day and I took out my aggravation on you. Here's the $25 you asked for.'

The little boy sat straight up, smiling. 'Oh, thank you daddy!' he yelled. Then, reaching under his pillow he pulled out some crumpled up bills. 

The man saw that the boy already had money, started to get angry again. 

The little boy slowly counted out his money, and then looked up at his father. 

'Why do you want more money if you already have some?' the father grumbled. 

'Because I didn't have enough, but now I do,' the little boy replied. 

'Daddy, I have $50 now. Can I buy an hour of your time? Please come home early tomorrow. I would like to have dinner with you.' 

The father was crushed. He put his arms around his little son, and he begged for his forgiveness. 

It's just a short reminder to all of you working so hard in life. We should not let time slip through our fingers without having spent some time with those who really matter to us, those close to our hearts. Do remember to share that $50 worth of your time with someone you love. 

If we die tomorrow, the company that we are working for could easily replace us in a matter of hours. But the family & friends we leave behind will feel the loss for the rest of their lives.

Thanks to Nigel Grainger of Fleet Risk Consultants for sharing the story.

With regards to a cancer patient's real life story, you can't get any better than the delightful Alicia Staley (@Stales) who shared this great post on her experiences - read it, it will make you stop and think a bit - LINK.  I am truly humbled to be her online Twitter buddy and follow her story of courage and determination.  Alicia, you ROCK!

Quote of the Day

"Thinking is the hardest work there is. Which is probably the reason why so few men engage in it."

Henry Ford

Science blog meme

This meme was started by Martin Fenner of Nature Network and I got it from my pal Paulo Nuin, while browsing through my Google Reader items for some information I needed for a client project and became distracted...

My answers are as follows:

1. What is your blog about?

Mainly the science and biology of cancer, but it wanders into HIV and immunology too.  I also write about new oncology drugs in development, which might be interesting to my pharma clients.

2. What will you never write about?

Gossip, innuendo and confidential stuff.  Stuff like that tunes me out.

3. Have you ever considered leaving science?

No it's my passion, but I suppose doing sales and marketing in the pharma industry for a while qualified as going over to the dark side.

4. What would you do instead?

Well, I dreamed of playing football for England as a kid.

5. What do you think will science blogging be like in 5 years?

No idea, probably a lot more crowded that it is now.

6. What is the most extraordinary thing that happened to you because of blogging?

Through blogging I found Twitter, and from there followed Robert Scoble the tech geek.  We must have swapped our Google Reader feeds some time because the next thing I knew, I was being followed by Scott Hensley who edits the WSJ Health blog.  He contacted me to say Robert had persuaded him to sign up to Twitter at a conference in NY where he was demonstrating web 2.0 technologies.  One of the things in his Google Reader shared items from friends was one I had shared - from the WSJ Health blog.  

I thought that was rather cool and had no idea until Scott mentioned it.  Web 2.0 technologies enable incredible viral connections and rapid dissemination of both information and interaction.

7. Did you write a blog post or comment you later regretted?

Thankfully no, and hope it stays that way.

8. When did you first learn about science blogging?

I first started 2 years ago but lost interest for 9 months when work got insanely busy and recently started again this year.

9. What do your colleagues at work say about your blogging?

Surprisingly, they seem to like it and send me links for interesting articles, suggest topics and also critique posts too.  Some of my clients also follow it randomly and send me emails with questions or comments, which is nice.

Who's up next?

Do what inspires you - why we specialise in cancer and hematology

This morning I was listening to a short talk on YouTube by Gary Vaynerchuk from WineLibrary at Web2.0.Image by stevegarfield via Flickr 

You can watch it yourself here. 

It was one of the most inspiring things I've heard this year and it got me thinking more critically. 

Often, we get asked by clients why do we 'only' do a few specialist areas - oncology, hematology, immunology, GI and respiratory medicine.

The answer is very very simple.

Sorry, but I really can't get excited about fungal toenails or suchlike.  Yes, we could have more clients and make more money having a broader focus doing anything under the sun that is related to the pharma industry, but it's what excites me, what I'm passionate about that matters much more. 

The oncology and hematology marketplace is exciting to me, it's interesting; a fascinating, complex area of different sub-diseases, treatments, pathways, mechanisms and targeted therapies.  Our brand equity is heavily invested in knowing this specialist subject well and that's what people ultimately call for; expertise and knowledge.  

If you're going to spend 15-18 hour days working on building a consulting business, or indeed any business, then wouldn't you rather spend it on subjects that you love and are passionate about?  At least, I think so, and it makes the job much more enjoyable, more of a vocation than a job, in fact.

Our time on earth is too short not to do things we really enjoy and if we have a chance to do what we want to do, why not grab it with both hands?