[This book is an] organized 'formulary' written for those who are considering a specific field - 'drug reps', as they are known in the industry.-Introd.

Award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author Gerald Posner reveals the heroes and villains of the trillion-dollar-a-year pharmaceutical industry and delivers “a withering and encyclopedic indictment of a drug industry that often seems to prioritize profits over patients (The New York Times Book Review). Pharmaceutical breakthroughs such as anti­biotics and vaccines rank among some of the greatest advancements in human history. Yet exorbitant prices for life-saving drugs, safety recalls affecting tens of millions of Americans, and soaring rates of addiction and overdose on pre­scription opioids have caused many to lose faith in drug companies. Now, Americans are demanding a national reckoning with a monolithic industry. “Gerald’s dogged reporting, sets Pharma apart from all books on this subject” (The Washington Standard) as we are introduced to brilliant scientists, incorruptible government regulators, and brave whistleblowers facing off against company exec­utives often blinded by greed. A business that profits from treating ills can create far deadlier problems than it cures. Addictive products are part of the industry’s DNA, from the days when corner drugstores sold morphine, heroin, and cocaine, to the past two decades of dangerously overprescribed opioids. Pharma also uncovers the real story of the Sacklers, the family that became one of America’s wealthiest from the success of OxyContin, their blockbuster narcotic painkiller at the center of the opioid crisis. Relying on thousands of pages of government and corporate archives, dozens of hours of interviews with insiders, and previously classified FBI files, Posner exposes the secrets of the Sacklers’ rise to power—revelations that have long been buried under a byzantine web of interlocking companies with ever-changing names and hidden owners. The unexpected twists and turns of the Sackler family saga are told against the startling chronicle of a powerful industry that sits at the intersection of public health and profits. “Explosively, even addictively, readable” (Booklist, starred review), Pharma reveals how and why American drug com­panies have put earnings ahead of patients.

The inside story of a band of entrepreneurial upstarts who made millions selling painkillers—until their scheme unraveled, putting them at the center of a landmark criminal trial. • SOON TO BE THE MAJOR MOTION PICTURE PAIN HUSTLERS STARRING EMILY BLUNT AND CHRIS EVANS "Unfolds with the velocity and verve of a Scorsese film…A tour de force."—Patrick Radden Keefe, New York Times bestselling author of Empire of Pain and Say Nothing John Kapoor had already amassed a small fortune in pharmaceuticals when he founded Insys Therapeutics. It was the early 2000s, a boom time for painkillers, and he developed a novel formulation of fentanyl, the most potent opioid on the market. Kapoor, a brilliant immigrant scientist with relentless business instincts, was eager to make the most of his innovation. He gathered around him an ambitious group of young lieutenants. His head of sales—an unstable and unmanageable leader, but a genius of persuasion—built a team willing to pull every lever to close a sale, going so far as to recruit an exotic dancer ready to scrape her way up. They zeroed in on the eccentric and suspect doctors receptive to their methods. Employees at headquarters did their part by deceiving insurance companies. The drug was a niche product, approved only for cancer patients in dire condition, but the company’s leadership pushed it more widely, and together they turned Insys into a Wall Street sensation. But several insiders reached their breaking point and blew the whistle. They sparked a sprawling investigation that would lead to a dramatic courtroom battle, breaking new ground in the government’s fight to hold the drug industry accountable in the spread of addictive opioids. In The Hard Sell, National Magazine Award–finalist Evan Hughes lays bare the pharma playbook. He draws on unprecedented access to insiders of the Insys saga, from top executives to foot soldiers, from the patients and staff of far-flung clinics to the Boston investigators who treated the case as a drug-trafficking conspiracy, flipping cooperators and closing in on the key players. With colorful characters and true suspense, The Hard Sell offers a bracing look not just at Insys, but at how opioids are sold at the point they first enter the national bloodstream—in the doctor’s office.

Kaizen procedures evolved in the automobile industry. Therefore, most of Kaizen literature, publications, books, cite Kaizen implementation in factories such as Toyota, Ford, Mazda and the like. But work practices within pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech industry are different from the auto sector. Regulations, customer demands, competitor landscape, product criteria, facility and environmental needs as well as employee skills within pharmaceutical (medical devices and biotech) companies are extremely stringent and totally different from the automobile industry. Therefore, 'as is' Kaizen practices from auto sector won't work for pharmaceutical, medical device, and biotech organizations. Kaizen needs to be customized for these life science industries, to achieve its full benefits. So far, there has been no book on Kaizen that is customized for such industries. For over a decade, the author, Dr. Shruti Bhat has successfully completed more than 250 Kaizen, Lean Six Sigma and other continuous improvement projects worldwide within pharmaceuticals NHP, medical devices, biotech and healthcare sectors, and felt it will be beneficial to share those techniques and experiences. In addition to explaining all the general Kaizen process features, implementation, and application, this book also provides a structured approach to designing Kaizen strategies, practices and implementation for pharmaceutical, medical device and biotech companies. This book will be most applicable to small to medium-size companies. It will demystify Kaizen and help business leaders in pharmaceutical, medical device, biotech and all life sciences organizations, irrespective of their size or workplace culture. It will also provide practical and useful examples and case studies of Kaizen principles that can be executed at various levels across the organization as well as for yourself as an individual to further your personal career. And last but not the least, it will help to improve revenues and create a lasting profitable change by using Kaizen principles and techniques.

To explore the role of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) in innovative drug development and its impact on patient access, the Board on Health Care Services and the Board on Health Sciences Policy of the National Academies jointly hosted a public workshop on July 24â€"25, 2019, in Washington, DC. Workshop speakers and participants discussed the ways in which federal investments in biomedical research are translated into innovative therapies and considered approaches to ensure that the public has affordable access to the resulting new drugs. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

The healthcare professionals who save and extend our lives are helpless without the medicines and technologies that have revolutionised medical care. But the industry that invents, makes and provides these indispensable tools is transforming under the pressure of ageing populations, globalisation and revolutions in biological and information technology. How this industry adapts and evolves is vitally important to every one of us. This book looks inside the heads and hearts of the people who lead the global pharmaceutical and medical technology industry. It describes how they make sense of their markets and the wider life sciences economy. It reveals what they have learned about how to lead large, complex organisations to compete in dynamic, global markets. Leadership in the Life Sciences is essential reading for anyone working in or with the pharmaceutical and medical technology industry and its halo of supporting companies. Written as ten succinct lessons, it gives the reader unique insight into what the industry’s leaders are thinking. Covering topics from leadership to organisational culture, from change management to digital disruption and from competitive strategy to value-creation, each chapter distils the accumulated wisdom of those who lead the complex and turbulent life sciences industry.

Challenges our understanding of health, risks, facts, and clinical trials [Payot]

Thanks to remarkable advances in modern health care attributable to science, engineering, and medicine, it is now possible to cure or manage illnesses that were long deemed untreatable. At the same time, however, the United States is facing the vexing challenge of a seemingly uncontrolled rise in the cost of health care. Total medical expenditures are rapidly approaching 20 percent of the gross domestic product and are crowding out other priorities of national importance. The use of increasingly expensive prescription drugs is a significant part of this problem, making the cost of biopharmaceuticals a serious national concern with broad political implications. Especially with the highly visible and very large price increases for prescription drugs that have occurred in recent years, finding a way to make prescription medicinesâ€"and health care at largeâ€"more affordable for everyone has become a socioeconomic imperative. Affordability is a complex function of factors, including not just the prices of the drugs themselves, but also the details of an individual's insurance coverage and the number of medical conditions that an individual or family confronts. Therefore, any solution to the affordability issue will require considering all of these factors together. The current high and increasing costs of prescription drugsâ€"coupled with the broader trends in overall health care costsâ€"is unsustainable to society as a whole. Making Medicines Affordable examines patient access to affordable and effective therapies, with emphasis on drug pricing, inflation in the cost of drugs, and insurance design. This report explores structural and policy factors influencing drug pricing, drug access programs, the emerging role of comparative effectiveness assessments in payment policies, changing finances of medical practice with regard to drug costs and reimbursement, and measures to prevent drug shortages and foster continued innovation in drug development. It makes recommendations for policy actions that could address drug price trends, improve patient access to affordable and effective treatments, and encourage innovations that address significant needs in health care.