Bio Job Blog : Bio Jobs : Biotechnology Jobs : Biopharmaceutical Jobs : Bioscience, Biotech Jobs : Bio Job Blog : Biocareer : Bio-Business Training, Biotechnology Training : Jobs in Biology : Internships in Biology : Internships in Biotechnology

For additional information, including registration, please click here to visit the event website. Use promo code BC for a discounted rate of $175.

Date: Thursday, January 26, 2012
Time: 8:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m.
Place: The Graduate Center of The City University of NY; 365 5th Ave; NY, NY 10016
Registration Fee: $195.00
Website: http://www.bdionline.com/mobilehealthcare2012.html

Representatives from the following companies are currently registered to attend: Affect Strategies; Alembic Health Communications; Allergan; Anderson Direct Marketing; Aurora Information Technology, Inc.; Baldwin Publishing; BlippMedia; Bristol-Myers Squibb Company; Brodeur Partners; Care Innovations; Cinchcast; CMI/Compas; ConferencePlus; Daiichi-Sankyo; DKI; Draftfcb Healthcare; DraftFCB/NeON; Edelman; eurorscg; Eveo; FreeMind; GCI Health; Google; Hale Advisors Inc.; hamad medical corporation; Huntington Hospital; HY Connect; IMC2 Health and Wellness; International Association of Business Communicators; Kwittken + Company; Makovsky & Co; Manhattan Research; Mom Central Consulting; Mount Sinai Hospital; MultiVu; NNN; Ogilvy; Padilla Speer Beardsley; Pharma Marketing News / Pharma Marketing Blog; Physicians Interactive; Pixels & Pills; Porter Novelli; PR Newswire; PRN Communications Inc; Public Relations Society of America - New York Chapter; SAY Media; Shire; State University of New York Buffalo; Stephanie Grayson; ToGoRun; Trident Communications; Turning Point Solutions, Inc.; United Healthcare; Velocidi; Wake Forest Baptist Health; WCG; Wharton, University of Pennsylvania; Within3; Yankee Public Relations; and others.

Attendee Testimonials:
Click here to see what our past attendees are saying about us.

About the Event:
Consumers and professionals are increasingly using their mobile devices for healthcare information. They are also interacting with healthcare providers and colleagues on their mobile phones. This conference will demonstrate the best case studies of how major healthcare brands are connecting with consumers and professionals through mobile communications. 

Agenda:
 

Roundtable Moderators:
Meighan Berberich, Vice President, Marketing, Cinchcast
James Chase, Editor-in-Chief, Medical Marketing & Media
George DeTorres, Divisional Vice President - Business Development, MultiVu
Rob Drasin, President, International Association of Business Communicators New York & President, Trident Communications
Sandra Fathi, President, Public Relations Society of America - New York Chapter & President and Founder, Affect 
Peter Gannon, Regional Vice President, Within3
Scott Hopkins, Executive Vice President, Anderson Direct Marketing
Theresa Jacobellis, Director of Public Affairs, Huntington Hospital 
Monique Levy, Vice President, Research, Manhattan Research
John Mack, Editor and Publisher, Pharma Marketing News / Pharma Marketing Blog 
Dr. Katherine Malbon, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Adolescent Medicine, Mount Sinai Hospital
Talya Miron-Shatz, PhD, Marketing Department, Wharton, University of Pennsylvania 
Jenna Mons, Consumer Product Manager for LAP-BAND®, Allergan 
Mario Nacinovich, Jr., Editor-in-Chief, Journal of Communication in Healthcare; Managing Director, AXON
Xavier Petit, Shire

Hotel Sponsor: Hotel 373 is the official hotel of BDI's events.

Sponsors:
PR Newswire / MultiVu; Within3; Anderson Direct Marketing; BioCrowd; Cinchcast; FierceMarkets; International Association of Business Communicators - New York Chapter; Journal of Communication in Healthcare; Manhattan Research; Mobile Marketing & Media; New York American Marketing Association; New York University; Pharma Marketing News; Pixels and Pills; Public Relations Society of America - New York Chapter; Sales Lead Management Association; Society for Healthcare Strategy and Market Development

For event related questions and registration, please contact Maria Feola-Magro at mfeola@bdionline.com or 212.765.8043.
For sponsorship/speaking opportunities, including pricing, please click here or contact Jennifer Brous at jbrous@bdionline.com or 212-765-8358

For additional information, including registration, please click here to visit the event website. Use promo code BC for a discounted rate of $175.

About BDI:
Business Development Institute (BDI), founded in New York City by Steve Etzler in 2001 and managed by Maria Feola, produces conferences and educational programs for marketing, communications and media professionals. Over 11,000 attendees have participated in our programs. We specialize in how technology and the internet impacts marketing, communications and media. Our programs educate while providing valuable networking opportunities to our attendees. The quality of our speakers, program topics, 1/2 day format, network, and value are what differentiates BDI from its competitors. Follow us on Twitter at www.twitter.com/bdionline. For additional information as well as sponsorship information, please download our Media Kit.

What we have done lately in the Healthcare industry:

11/10/2011 Healthcare Social Communications Leadership Forum

07/13/2011 Social Communications & Healthcare 2011: Case Studies & Roundtables

06/09/2011 Healthcare & Life Sciences Social Communications Leadership Forum

03/17/2011 Healthcare Social Communications Leadership Forum

01/19/2011 Mobile Healthcare Communications: Case Studies and Roundtables

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Last week, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner unveiled a “blueprint” that contained immediate and actionable steps that can be taken to spur innovation in the life sciences. The report’s proposals stem from a review of FDA’s current policies and practices, as well as months of meetings with major stakeholders nationwide, including key industry leaders, small biotech, pharmaceutical and medical device company owners, members of the academic community, and patient groups. Entitled “Driving Biomedical Innovation: Initiatives for Improving Products” the report focuses on seven major actions:

1. rebuilding FDA’s small business outreach services
2. building the infrastructure to drive and support personalized medicine
3. creating a rapid drug development pathway for important targeted therapies
4. harnessing the potential of data mining and information sharing while protecting patient privacy
5. improving consistency and clarity in the medical device review process
6. training the next generation of innovators
7. streamlining and reforming FDA regulations

The blueprint was issued in response to growing concerns that—despite record investments in biomedical R&D—the drug pipelines at many US life sciences companies has grown exceedingly thin. Not surprisingly, most life sciences companies blame the agency for the thinning pipelines but in reality both side have contributed to the problem. Hamburg’s bold plan seems reasonable. But, it can only be implemented if Congress provides sufficient funding to underwrite the new initiatives proposed in the plan. And, while these funds ought to be allocated, it is not clear whether or not it is likely given the poor economy and the current, unprecedented political divisiveness that exists in Washington these days.

Moreover, Mark Senak, author of the Eye on FDA blog, suggests that FDA can improve its effectiveness by learning how to communicate better with its stakeholders. Mark, a social media advocate provides this compelling insight into FDA’s communication problems and the agency’s inability to grasp that the Internet and social media can help to improve its communication skills:

"The extremely long track record of FDA in attempting to figure out the Internet (first public meeting held in October 1996) and social media (first public meeting held in November, 2009) has yielded no guidance, with little transparency into the process.  It is time for FDA to seek outside communications expertise to help the agency better formulate policy on a timely basis."

While I believe that Commissioner Hamburg’s blueprint for improvement is a good one, it isn’t clear whether she will get the necessary support to implement it.

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Much has been written about how supportive the pharmaceutical industry has been about US healthcare reform. Prior to the debate, the Obama administration gleefully announced that pharma will give $80 billion in drug discounts in exchange for certain assurances that weren’t publicly disclosed. As most of us know, the US House of Representatives passed historic healthcare reform legislation last week and in addition to a public option it stipulates that pharma will be required to give $140 billion in drug discounts. According to Ed Silverman over at the newly reinstated Pharmalot blog, AstraZeneca CEO David Brennan, who is also this year’s chair of the industry trade group PhRMA, vowed that pharma would fight the house healthcare reform legislation. 

While Brennan’s statement isn’t surprising nor particularly noteworthy, his comments explaining pharma’s position on healthcare reform are revealing and important to understand. He told the Huffington Post “We said there were principles we didn’t want to see violated. And if those principles - price controls, Medicare rebates, moving dual eligibles back from Medicare and back into the Medicaid discount program - if those things happen, I can’t see how we could be supportive of the program.” In other words, we will support anything you propose— and may even be willing to kick in another $60 billion or so to support healthcare reform— but any discussion about government regulation of drug prices is a deal breaker! 

To my knowledge, this is the first public mention of price controls by any pharmaceutical executive during the almost year long debate on healthcare reform. The reason that I find Brennan’s statement interesting is that I have long contended that pharma will give the Obama administration and Congress anything it wants in exchange for assurances that the government will not attempt to control drug prices. For those of you who don’t know, the US is one of the only countries in the world where the government is prohibited from setting drug prices. This means that US drug makers in concert with insurance companies and third party payors can set drug prices based on what the American pharmaceutical market can bear. Not surprisingly, the profit margins on drugs sold in the US are the highest in the world. Obviously, pharma doesn’t want the US government hindering or limiting their profits by setting or capping drug prices. 

I am glad that pharma has finally decided to publicly “come clean” on the price control issue. The public option and issues surrounding data exclusivity for follow-on biologics pale in comparison to the financial havoc that price controls would wreak on the pharmaceutical industry. And, I suspect that pharma and its lobbyists will do whatever it takes to insure that price controls never become a reality in the US. However, at the end of the day, government regulation of drug and device prices will ultimately be required for any meaningful changes to take place to the US healthcare system.

Hat tip to Ed!

Until next time...

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!!

Addendum: After writing this post this weekend, an article appeared in Monday's New York Times that revealed that the drug industry has quietly been raising its wholesale prices on prescription drugs over the past year.  This, of course, was done in anticipation of possible federal legislation that might impose some government controls on drug pricing.  According to the Times article: "In the last year, the industry has raised the wholesale prices of brand-name prescription drugs by about 9 percent, according to industry analysts. That will add more than $10 billion to the nation’s drug bill, which is on track to exceed $300 billion this year. By at least one analysis, it is the highest annual rate of inflation for drug prices since 1992. The drug trend is distinctly at odds with the direction of the Consumer Price Index, which has fallen by 1.3 percent in the last year.  Not surprisingly, the US pharmaceutical industry justifies the practice because as an industry spokesperson put it  "they are having to raise prices to maintain the profits necessary to invest in research and development of new drugs as the patents on many of their most popular drugs are set to expire over the next few years."  Hmmmm, interesting comment considering the US pharmaceutical industry has layed off over 180,000 employees over the past three years, a majority of whom are R&D scientists...go figure!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link

Bristol-Myers Squibb announced today that it has sold its medical device and wound care business, ConvaTec, for approximately $4.1 billion to Nordic Capital and Avista Capital Partners. The divesture is part of BMS’s corporate restructuring that was announced late last year to become a “next generation biopharma” company—whatever that means.  

ConvaTec which became part of BMS after Bristol Myers bought Squibb back in the 1980s, will continue to operate as an independent entity according to analysts close to the deal.

I suspect that there may be some downsizing in ConvaTec’s future since it is no longer a part of the BMS.  This is not good news for New Jersey, which is already struggling with major pharma layoffs and ongoing corporate right sizing moves.

Until next time…

Good Luck and Good Job Hunting!!!!!!

• Email This
• Print
• Comments
• Trackbacks
• Share Link