Commercialization
-
A drug for fewer than 1,000 patients? Awareness and diagnosis are key.
Zevra Therapeutics is building a commercial strategy for an ultra-small patient pool.
By Amy Baxter • Dec. 9, 2024 -
How Alexion markets a rare disease drug by ‘starting with the end in mind’
The biopharma, now an arm of AstraZeneca, needs to build the plane while flying it to be first in rare diseases with no other option.
By Michael Gibney • Dec. 3, 2024 -
Profile
Left to clean up after ‘pharma bro’ Shkreli’s arrest, former Turing CEO Ron Tilles reckons with the past
While Martin Shkreli smirked his way through a public securities fraud investigation, Ron Tilles became interim CEO of Turing Pharmaceuticals, ready or not. Here’s his story.
By Michael Gibney • Nov. 14, 2024 -
From Mr. Mucus to the Super Bowl, pharma tries offbeat marketing strategies
As the industry’s marketing dollars shift, companies are targeting potential patients in unique ways.
By Amy Baxter • Nov. 13, 2024 -
Pfizer and Lilly’s telehealth prescribing platforms draw Senate scrutiny for ‘potential fraud’
As Big Pharma embraces telehealth to sell medicines directly to patients, lawmakers wonder whether the programs skirt anti-kickback rules.
By Kelly Bilodeau • Nov. 12, 2024 -
Big Pharma earnings hang hope on the next generation of blockbusters
Pfizer, J&J, Biogen and Novartis are banking on new products to make up for maturing blockbusters, but future growth is not guaranteed.
By Michael Gibney • Oct. 31, 2024 -
Backlash builds against Novo’s Catalent takeover
Roche recently joined naysayers who argue the deal threatens competition in the burgeoning weight loss and diabetes drug market.
By Amy Baxter • Oct. 30, 2024 -
PharmaVoice 100
2024 PharmaVoice 100s: Rare Disease Warriors
Pharma pros driving drug development and access for patients with high unmet needs.
By Meagan Parrish • Oct. 29, 2024 -
J&J’s comeback kid Spravato heads for blockbuster status
After a slow start, the novel esketamine nasal spray for depression is now J&J’s fastest-growing medication.
By Meagan Parrish • Oct. 25, 2024 -
Dengue is spreading and Sanofi is pulling the U.S. market’s only vaccine. What’s next?
As Sanofi prepares to halt production on its dengue vaccine in 2026, locally acquired infections in the U.S. are raising the alarm.
By Alexandra Pecci • Oct. 23, 2024 -
PharmaVoice 100
2024 PharmaVoice 100s: Cardiometabolic All-Stars
Leaders tackling long-standing health needs with new solutions.
By Amy Baxter • Oct. 18, 2024 -
Want to launch a blockbuster? An AstraZeneca exec breaks it down.
Even drugs with “blockbuster potential” often fall short of expectations. Here’s what can help a new medication pass the $1 billion mark.
By Alexandra Pecci • Oct. 16, 2024 -
How Madrigal plans to win on the market with the first MASH drug
Despite the drug’s wide patient pool, Madrigal is taking a targeted approach with its first launch.
By Amy Baxter • Oct. 10, 2024 -
Bluebird to lay off another 25% of workforce in latest restructuring
The announced job cuts are the latest in a series of steps Bluebird has taken to preserve cash and break even financially amid slow uptake of its marketed gene therapies.
By Delilah Alvarado • Sept. 25, 2024 -
Patient access: How Novartis, Eli Lilly, and other Big Pharmas measure up
A new report examines the patient reach efforts of 20 of the world’s largest pharma companies in low- and middle-income countries.
By Alexandra Pecci • Sept. 23, 2024 -
At J&J, oncology R&D meets commercial strategy in a quest for new standards of care
The disparate teams of research and commercial at J&J work closely together from the get-go.
By Michael Gibney • Sept. 19, 2024 -
Deep Dive
A decade of cancer immunotherapy: Keytruda, Opdivo and the drugs that changed oncology
Over the past 10 years, PD1-blocking medicines have transformed cancer care. But the steady expansion of their use has slowed and, despite much trying, pharmaceutical companies have largely failed to top the drugs’ successes.
By Jonathan Gardner • Sept. 10, 2024 -
A new way of determining a drug’s value — with health equity in mind
Quality-adjusted life years are an important tool to frame a drug’s cost effectiveness, but they leave out other determinants of health.
By Michael Gibney • Sept. 10, 2024 -
FDA adcomm reform talks heat up
As the agency considers eliminating adcomm votes from the approval process, members vie to have their voices heard.
By Amy Baxter • Sept. 3, 2024 -
Is anyone taking the world’s priciest drugs?
A slew of breakthrough gene therapies won FDA approval in recent years — but high price tags haven’t always yielded big returns.
By Meagan Parrish • Aug. 30, 2024 -
BioMarin taps Amgen, Roche vets in executive reshuffle
Greg Friberg and James Sabry will take over, respectively, as heads of R&D and business development, less than a year after BioMarin named a new CEO.
By Jacob Bell • Aug. 22, 2024 -
Q&A
23andMe inches closer to cancer immunotherapy, guided by its genetic database
Dr. Jennifer Low, head of 23andMe’s therapeutics division, is taking the company into new territory with a potential cancer treatment that targets a unique pathway.
By Michael Gibney • Aug. 20, 2024 -
M&A is ready to explode, and that’s good news for pharma layoffs
Deals driven by obesity meds are fueling an M&A comeback, driving the industry to take fewer cost-cutting measures.
By Kelly Bilodeau • Aug. 12, 2024 -
Market share shakeup: Big Pharma’s bestselling drugs drive industry shifts in 2024’s first half
The top drugs at each of the world’s most valuable pharma companies tell the story of just how much the industry has changed over the course of a few years.
By Michael Gibney • Aug. 8, 2024 -
Pfizer, GSK and Moderna execs remain optimistic about RSV vaccines despite CDC blowback
An advisory committee’s age group recommendations look like a major setback, but executives are painting a rosier picture.
By Michael Gibney • Aug. 6, 2024