FirstWord: Market Research Reports

Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategies. Until recently, the Federal Drug Administration’s REMS program impacted drugs that would not have been otherwise approved due to their risks. The hurdles, co...

With its top eight markets valued at more than $30 billion in 2009, Latin America represents shining hope for an industry in flux. Strong, steady growth, resiliency in the face of global downturn, pos...

Anti-competitive or just good business?That’s the question facing the pharmaceutical industry and regulators alike, as companies dealing with drugs going off-patent increasingly rely on pay-for-delay...

Across Russia and former Communist countries in Central and Eastern Europe, the battle for market share is being played out on three fronts between patented drugs, branded and commodity generics. And...

Over the past decade, the pharmaceutical industry has built up its social media presence. From Facebook pages and Twitter micro-blogs to branded community forums and supported web pages, drug companie...

“Mighty things from small beginnings grow,” John Dryden once astutely noted. Although the influential 17th century poet and literary critic knew nothing of medicine and marketing, his words ring true...

Around the globe, emerging markets are on the move. From Brazil, Russia and India to China, Turkey, Mexico and South Korea, experts predict emerging markets will represent 70 percent of industry growt...

Enchiladas, cerveza, sombreros and ponchos: Forget what you thought you knew about Mexico. With the 11th largest economy in the world and a pharmaceutical industry expected to hit $14.9 billion by 201...

“Healing is a matter of time,” Hippocrates once said, “but it is sometimes also a matter of opportunity.”As smartphone technology rapidly evolves and puts knowledge literally into the hands of physici...

Adapt. Evolve. Survive. Darwinian Theory as a business model for the pharmaceutical industry? Never has it been more apt—or timely. As it enters one of its most challenging periods ever, the pharmaceu...

Millions of Americans protested it, conservative pundits howled in outrage and lobbyists worked feverishly behind closed doors to stop it. But in the end, on March 30, 2010, President Obama’s nascent...

New directions. New faces. Major new facilities. As 2009 ended and the curtain lifted on 2010, Merck & Co emerged from its $41.1 billion union with Schering-Plough with a whole new outlook. Starti...

Expect the unexpected. For pharma giant Roche, those were words to live by as 2009 came to a close. Despite a strong showing in news analysis — of 179 articles published internationally on the compan...

The Life Cycle of Drug Brands: Concept to Market ShareThe match is on. The goal is in sight. Yet the rules of the game are shifting. For the $60 billion pharmaceutical marketing industry, keeping up w...

Out of 430 million Facebook users, 60 million Twitter accounts and countless blogs, the cacophony of voices and opinions on the Internet is relentless. But that doesn’t mean the pharmaceutical industr...

One step forward, two steps back. At least that’s what the last two quarters of 2009 seemed like for pharmaceutical giant, AstraZeneca. Despite a strong showing in news analysis — of 221 articles publ...

May you live in interesting times—or so the old curse goes. Johnson & Johnson is certainly doing just that. After a year of upsets and some victories, J&J ended the last half of 2009 with the...

“Without the strength to endure the crisis, one will not see the opportunity within,” author and business commentator Chin-Ning Chu recently said. “It is within the process of endurance that opportuni...

From the ashes of recent economic fires, a new leader is rising. Following one of the worst years ever for the pharmaceutical industry, in which economic downturn was compounded by regulatory crises,...

From the finance industry to manufacturing, from customer service to on-line shopping, the internet has changed the way the world does business. And now it’s changing the way it takes care of its heal...

The sign on many physicians’ doors says it all: “The doctor no longer sees sales reps.” A growing trend amongst health care professionals (HCPs) frustrated by traditional marketing that, at times, sat...

“It's no use going back to yesterday,” Alice said in Wonderland, “because I was a different person then.”As Alice’s environment changed her, so, too, is an era of “looking glass” transparency changing...

Homogeneity and standardization—across the European Union, they’re the bricks for building an economic powerhouse that offers a single system of laws governing people, goods, services and capital. Yet...

On every border, across every frontier of Latin America, a revolution is underway. Prefaced by the ground-breaking Hatch-Waxman Act of 1984, the war for market share between generic and branded pharma...

More than 430 million people talk on Facebook. Another 60 million people tweet on Twitter. Millions more chatter on YouTube, MySpace, Windows Life and instant messaging. In short, the universe of soci...

Direct marketing restrictions are everywhere. Consumers are suspicious. Physicians are shutting their doors to reps and the market is changing. Bottom line: Lackluster profits across the industry. But...

“When the going gets tough,” Joseph P. Kennedy once said, “the tough get going…” And when it comes to the beleaguered pharmaceutical industry, he could have added, “… then they rethink how they do bus...

“The future influences the present just as much as the past.” ~ (Friedrich Nietzsche, scholar and philosopher)When it comes to the past, present and future of the continuing medical education (CME) in...

Twenty countriesThree languagesSeven racial groupsAnd an estimated population of 623 million people by 2030By anyone’s measure, Latin America is one of the most ethnically diverse and economically com...

1.7 billion users More than 380 per cent growth since 2000 Nearly 75 per cent penetration in North America alone1 The fastest growing, most complex, yet easiest-to-access...

Their impact is undeniable, the burden of disease unfathomable. More than 100 musculoskeletal and rheumatic diseases currently plague North America, with the number of sufferers growing daily.The stat...

As the fourth largest pharmaceutical company in the world, with annual revenues of $43.9 billion, some of the most instantly recognisable drugs marketed and the kind of pipeline smaller companies only...

After two anemic years, GSK is ready to breathe new life.Despite intense competition from generics in the US, the company has finally reported a healthy growth in the third quarter of 2009.Now, eager...

International censure over Novartis’ grave delays in supplying the H1N1 vaccine.Renewed criticism by an institutional investor for CEO Daniel Vasella’s substantial pay package and considerable power.A...

“It takes many good deeds to build a good reputation,” Benjamin Franklin once wisely observed, “and only one bad one to lose it.”How many good deeds will it take to repair the pharmaceutical industry’...

Its scope is global, its membership limitless, and its power undeniable.Social media — whether Facebook, Twitter, viral messages or blogs — has gripped the public imagination, created its own language...

Every year, the numbers grow exponentially: 10.9 million new cancer diagnoses worldwide, 6.7 million cancer deaths annually.But as the number of cases expand, so, too, does the number of five-year sur...

The numbers are staggering: More than 200 million people around the world now suffer from diabetes and its major complications. According to the World Health Organization, that figure is expected to s...

In boardrooms, around water coolers and behind closed office doors, decision-makers in the pharmaceutical industry are asking questions: What’s happening with Pfizer? What developments have occurred i...

“Change,” futurist Alvin Toffler once said, “is the process by which the future invades our lives.” For the pharmaceutical sales industry, that future is unfolding now. Dropping revenue, increasingly...

The inexorable rise of social media is resulting in more and more business communities taking notice of its huge global potential, and the pharmaceutical industry is no exception.Whilst patients have...

Medical Meeting Outcomes and Insights Barcelona, September 2009 – The results of three drug trials announced at the prestigious European Society of Cardiology Congress 2009 are expected to have a maj...

A good opportunity is opening up for pharma CVCs, but only if the corporate structure is right The medical/health and life science sector was the second highest corporate venture capital (CVC) invest...

The phenomenon of social media is seeing the creation of information and interest communities on an unparalled scale, and health is among the most popular.For pharmaceutical companies, the potential b...

The prospects for a major new company The pharmaceutical industry’s appetite for major mergers seems unabated, and the $41.1 billion Merck & Co/Schering-Plough deal - one of the largest ever merg...

Could this single deal mark a phase of big pharma/biotech consolidation? In March 2009, after months of negotiations, Roche acquired the 44 percent of shares that it did not already own in its long-t...

A positive move, but not one which deals with Bristol-Myers Squibb’s upcoming patent expiry problems On July 22, 2009, Bristol-Myers Squibb announced that it would acquire – at a considerable premium...

The recent ASCO meeting was attended by around 30,000 cancer researchers and physicians and over 4,000 abstracts covering a wide range of clinical trial results and related topics were presented. How...

How does the world's 7th largest pharma company plan to grow its pharmaceutical revenues? For competitors and investors alike this is a key question, and one that must be considered in the light of t...

... …but in Mexico it’s the small companies that have done well in generics.” Xavier Tello, Independent healthcare industry expert “As a manufacturer, you should ... in hospital-driven niches, such as oncology Branded Generics: Strategies and Tactics for Winning in Latin America answers key questions: Who are ...