Lyman BioPharma Consulting LLC

Advice and Resources for the Biotech Industry

Advice and Resources for the Biotech Industry

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BioPharma and Hollywood: Land of the Blockbusters

Filed in: Drug Pricing |Economics |Historical Perspectives |Pharma Industry Regulation

When you hear the word “blockbuster”, what’s the first thing that comes to your mind?
a) A movie that earns hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office
b) A prescription drug that brings in more than $1 billion a year in sales
c) A bankrupt chain of video stores
d) A large bomb capable of destroying an entire city block

All four of these choices are valid answers, but the focus of this article is on the first two. The parallels between biopharma and Hollywood are strong. Both industries invest huge amounts of money in a large number of projects with the hope that some will turn out to be blockbusters i.e. massive money making machines. Sometimes it works out, but the failure rate is high, with most drugs (and many movies) never recouping their development costs. Both groups also love to develop sequels, which is a simpler strategy than developing riskier independent products that their fickle public may, or may not, embrace.There are many aspects of their businesses that are shared by the pharmaceutical and movie industries. Let’s see how they compare:
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The Covenant Between BioPharma Companies and Their Customers

Filed in: Drug Pricing |Economics |Historical Perspectives |Pharma Industry

Outrageous drug price increases have been a hot-button news story for most of the year. Even those who work in the industry know that drug pricing is incredibly complicated, tied to all sorts of group discounts, bundles, and a system of rebates (which are themselves tied to market share of the drug) that benefits both drug companies and pharmacy benefit managers. What was once explained by industry wags as the unfortunate actions of just a few exploitative bad actors (e.g. Turing and Valeant) has continued to expand to more firms. Generic drug maker Mylan (seller of the EpiPen) and Taro Pharmaceuticals have now been caught up in the contretemps, as has newcomer Novum Pharma. Venture capitalist Bruce Booth wrote a nicely detailed commentary comparing “innovator” vs. “exploiter” companies, but I’m not so sure that it’s easy to quickly distinguish one from the other. Many of the companies categorized as innovators (meaning they actually do R&D, and generate new products that meet unmet medical needs), are also responsible for some of these outrageous price hikes. These include companies that make drugs for multiple sclerosis and those who peddle high priced insulins.
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Can Changing A Biotech Company’s Name Really Alter Its Fortunes?

Filed in: Science History |Historical Perspectives |Economics

Shakespeare tells us that a rose, by any other name, would smell as sweet. Its alluring fragrance is a quality independent of what we call it. Is the same thing true in the land of biotech? Would changing its name really free a biotech company from an established reputation as a substandard performer? Or is changing the name of a company simply pretending to solve a problem, equivalent to putting air in one of the tires when the check engine light comes on?
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Which Bush Had The Greatest Impact On American Science?

Filed in: Historical Perspectives |Politics |Basic Science

Was it George W. Bush? His administration is best known for putting limits on the use of embryonic stem cells for research, for its continued support of space exploration (remember the proposal for the mission to Mars), and for questioning the science of global warming. This latter position contributed (at least in part) to the U.S. not supporting the Kyoto protocol to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. He did fulfill a commitment to doubling the NIH budget during the early years of his administration. Unfortunately, funding of the NIH became static at that point, and in inflation-adjusted dollars, is now about 20 percent lower than it was in 2003. George W. Bush also called for the doubling of certain research programs via the American Competitiveness Initiative, but Congress never funded it. His administration was repeatedly accused of being anti-science by adding politically correct appointees to various science panels, and for censoring reports that conflicted with his administrations views.
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Cancer Immunotherapy: It’s (Almost) All About the Combo

Filed in: Cancer Immunotherapy |Immunology |Historical Perspectives |Drug Pricing

In the early days of cancer chemotherapy, doctors quickly realized that the single agents they were testing were not only highly toxic, they were simply ineffective at curing their patients. Initial discussions about combining some of these drugs were met with heated opposition by the medical community. As former NCI Director Vincent DeVita Jr. stated in his recent memoir The Death of Cancer (2015), “Using more than one drug at a time to treat something was, as a general rule, considered sloppy medicine.” The first effective cancer treatments evolved to include combinations of four chemotherapeutic drugs. This pattern is now repeating itself in the field of cancer immunotherapy.
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Drug Pricing: Lack of Transparency and Trust Compound the Problem

Filed in: Drug Pricing |Historical Perspectives |Politics

The latest attack on drug industry pricing has calmed down a little now, although the subject is sure to reignite as the 2016 Presidential election race heats up. Hillary Clinton, despite being the leading recipient of campaign contributions from drug industry insiders, recently issued a call to regulate drug pricing (and Bernie Sanders has actually co-sponsored new drug pricing legislation). These calls elicited the expected responses from PhRMA and BIO, with both trade organizations suggesting that such a move would restrict patient access and inhibit the development of new medicines.
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