Pharmacuetical Industry News

Court Takes Up Drug-Data Case

The Supreme Court agreed to decide whether states can bar the sale of doctors’ prescription data to drug companies, setting the stage for a ruling likely to affect one of the pharmaceutical industry’s most powerful marketing tools.

Currently, data companies such as IMS Health Inc. gather information from pharmacies on which medicines doctors are prescribing and how often. Drug makers buy the data, using it to refine their marketing pitches and measure which salespeople are the most effective.

A 2007 Vermont law effectively banned the practice in the state. It says data-mining companies can’t sell the prescription information for marketing purposes, and drug makers can’t use it, unless the prescribing doctor consents.

Vermont lawmakers said the measure would protect the privacy of doctors and patients and help to control health-care costs on expensive brand-name drugs. The state said the pharmaceutical industry spends nearly $8 billion a year on marketing efforts directed at doctors.

IMS Health and two other data-mining companies, along with a leading drug-industry trade group, challenged the law on First Amendment grounds and won a key ruing in November. A federal appeals court in New York found the Vermont law an unconstitutional restriction on the commercial free-speech rights of the plaintiffs.

That ruling conflicted with a ruling by a different federal appeals court upholding similar laws in Maine and New Hampshire. Now the Supreme Court will settle the issue.

Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell said he looks forward to the Supreme Court arguments, which could come in April. “Vermont doctors pressed for this law because of their concerns about privacy and because they view this data mining practice as an intrusion into the way doctors practice medicine,” he said.

IMS Health and the other data-mining companies said the laws in Vermont and elsewhere “harm patients by making it more difficult to communicate timely and often vital information about new medicine and safety updates on existing medicine.”

Separately, the Supreme Court said it will consider whether investors can proceed with a securities-fraud lawsuit against Halliburton Co.

A federal appeals court in New Orleans blocked the class-action lawsuit last year, saying plaintiffs failed to show that the company’s alleged misstatements inflated its share price.

In their petition the Supreme Court, the investors said the lower-court ruling erected a new, higher standard that could make it more difficult for some securities lawsuits to move forward. The investors said the appeals court wrongly required them to prove essential pieces of their case at early stages of the litigation. The Obama administration, siding with the investors, filed a brief that urged the high court to hear the case.

Halliburton said there was nothing unusual about the legal approach the lower court used to reject the shareholder lawsuit, which alleges that Halliburton misled investors about its asbestos liabilities and other matters roughly a decade ago.

Importance of nanotechnology in formulation and drug delivery

The Nanotechnology Knowledge Transfer Network (NanoKTN), one of the UKs primary knowledge-based networks for Micro and Nanotechnologies, today announced it has partnered with the School of Pharmacy to host an event exploring the ways in which nanotechnology can help with the formulation and delivery of drugs. The conference will provide a forum for industry professionals to discuss and highlight best practise and to encourage collaborative working.

The biopharmaceutical industry is one sector guaranteed to see the benefits that nanotechnology has to offer, with the nanotechnology-enabled drug delivery market predicted to rise in value from $3.39bn to $26bn by 2012. Drug delivery systems that utilise nanotechnology are increasingly being adopted by industry as the drugs they are developing become more difficult to formulate. Issues such as solubility, labile moiety stability and transport across biological barriers can all be addressed by nanotechnology-based systems.

This event will look at where nanotechnology can help with the formulation and delivery of the drugs currently in development that would benefit from such improvements. With presentations from leading industry professionals, the event will look at where key technologies are yet to be established, with the aim to identify gaps in the market where UK companies can invest and become involved.

Dr Peter Luke, Senior Director, Strategic Alliances, Worldwide Business Development at Pfizer will look at the current changes in pharmaceutical research and how the concept of Open Innovation is being far more widely accepted and acted upon. Peters presentation will discuss recent trends in open innovation, using examples that demonstrate the scientific value that such collaborations bring to both the pharmaceutical and the academic communities.

There will also be an opportunity to discuss the next round of funding in nanotechnology for healthcare by the Technology Strategy Board.
Other speakers include Dr Bill Lindsay of The School of Pharmacy, University of London, Professor Ijeoma Uchegbu of The School of Pharmacy, University of LondonandProfessor Stephen Hart of Genex BioSystems.

The field of bionanotechnology is resolving some significant problems. It has enabled new formulations for drugs that are commercially available and there are a number of drugs and drug-delivery systems in the R pipeline and at the regulatory approval stage, comments Dr Mike Fisher, Theme Manager at the NanoKTN.

Fisher continues, Nanotechnology has a lot to offer right now and events like this are crucial to ensure the UK is kept at the forefront of developing the next generation of products for drug formulation.

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