Pharma cos seek to clean up image
The global drugs industry, battered by controversy over drug safety and access to medicines, needs to go on the offensive to demonstrate its value to society, top executives said on Thursday.
By Agencies |
GENEVA: The global drugs industry, battered by controversy over drug safety and access to medicines, needs to go on the offensive to demonstrate its value to society, top executives said on Thursday.
Daniel Vasella, CEO of Novartis and outgoing president of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), said the industry’s reputation hit an all-time low last year.
The latest ’06 survey by polling company Gallup showed a modest recovery, but pharmaceuticals are still ranked below sectors like banking, television and radio, autos and real estate. Mr Vasella told reporters at an IFPMA meeting that the industry was dogged by a “perception of greed, lack of transparency, aggressive marketing and insensitivity toward the healthcare needs of the poor.”
In the developing world — where the industry’s reputation reached a nadir five years ago when it sued Nelson Mandela’s South Africa over patents and access to AIDS medicines — the industry is trying to regain the moral high ground. Recently, companies have been flocking to invest in finding new medicines for tropical diseases, in a growing recognition that this has become a basic requirement for them to operate.
At stake is more than just good public relations. The $600bn-a-year pharmaceuticals business relies on its pact with society to protect patents and ensure that new drug candidates get a fast and sympathetic review from regulators.
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A shifting of the goalposts on either issue could effectively destroy companies’ license to operate. “We need to have the rewards for the risky work that we do,” said Schering-Plough CEO Fred Hassan, who is taking over as IFPMA president.Recent high-profile scandals over a handful of drugs — most notably the withdrawal of Merck & Co’s painkiller Vioxx in ’04 — dealt a blow to public confidence, while critics claimed the industry was putting profits before patients.
At the same time shareholders have become concerned that regulators will take a more cautious approach to drug approvals at a time when the cost of bringing a new drug to market has spiralled to over $1bn.
“The failure rates in Phase III are worse now than they were two decades ago, and therefore the cost of R&D for each molecule has gone up dramatically,” Mr Hassan said. “This is something that is of great concern to our investors and to our industry. We have to crack the code on R&D productivity and try and do a lot better.”
Mr Vasella said smaller players were being squeezed hard by the sharp decline in research productivity per dollar spent, but added more drugs were still getting to market than in the past. Between 1995 and ’04 a total of 307 new molecular entities were approved by the US Food and Drug Administration, up from 220 in the previous decade, he said.
Mr Vasella said the industry was now taking several steps to try and reassure the public and improve its image. Last year the IFPMA launched a web portal giving access to information on companies’ clinical trials, in a bid to improve transparency and allay suspicions that firms might be suppressing negative data.
In January, it will also bring into force a new global marketing code of practice setting firm guidelines for the appropriate promotion of drugs. Companies that breach the code will be named and shamed.
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