Pharma Fights Back Against Drug Price Regulation

The administration has been proposing ways to deflate drug prices—the most recently suggested order is focused on tying U.S. drug prices to the much lower price of the same drugs in other countries, in addition to discounts for insulin and epinephrine, eliminating rebates from pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs), and allowing drug imports. While pharma CEOs didn’t seem concerned at first, claiming the order couldn’t be legally implemented, they’ve now drafted a counteroffer. Politico reports that PhRMA proposed a 10% discount on drugs administered at hospitals and clinics and covered under Medicare Part B as opposed to the 30% discount expected by the White House. They also offered a cost-sharing cap for patients in Medicare Part D’s catastrophic coverage phase while referencing notable differences in innovation and access between the U.S. healthcare system and those of other nations. The lobby group claims they’ll implement the voluntary rules quickly, eliminating the need for formal regulation.

A New Talent Firm Emerges

Industry veteran Matthew West introduces Global Talent LLC, a full-service talent acquisition and development firm for the pharmaceutical and healthcare communications industry. Founder Matthew West has 20 years of experience in the industry and has put his connections towards building a robust database of professionals and an elite network of pharmaceutical advertising and PR agencies, medical education and communication firms, and global biotech and pharmaceutical manufacturing organizations.

EVERSANA Expands its Data and Analytics

Jim Lang, CEO, EVERSANA

Data-driven predictive modeling is becoming increasingly valuable to healthcare marketers. In order to offer the best-in-class ability to analyze data quickly and make predictions that lead to smarter, faster actions for their life sciences clients, EVERSANA acquired HVH Precision Analytics and its predictive analytics platform.

“This acquisition marks a transformative moment for EVERSANA and our clients,” EVERSANA CEO Jim Lang said in a statement. “Our integrated commercial services are now powered by a military grade analytics platform which will optimize every corner of our operation, ranging from our strategies to ensure long-term market access and revenue management to our services improving patient adherence.”

Purchased from Havas Health & You (HH&Y) and Perspecta, the AI and machine learning platform is recognized as one of the most powerful tools in the healthcare sector for marketing analytics. The acquisition allows for continuity with existing HH&Y clients while expanding EVERSANA’s offerings to include a commercial services platform designed to solve global pricing, access, reimbursement, adherence, and product delivery challenges in the life sciences sector.

“The value brought by data and analytics is long overdue within the pharmaceutical industry,” said Steve Costalas, CEO, HVH Precision Analytics. “Our technology and talented team are at the forefront of the industry and are already propelling faster analysis and actions for EVERSANA clients. The fit is seamless, and we are onboarding new programs right now.”

Determined to Fixx Hemophilia

Fixx Pharmaceuticals recently announced the launch of its business operations in Las Vegas where it will pursue its ambitious goal of curing hemophilia with CRISPR gene editing.

Jesse John Francis Clark, Founder of Fixx, wants to commercialize products as soon as possible that he says will decrease the overall cost of care for the 20,000 hemophilia patients in the U.S. “We are going to develop a product that is more cost-effective for payers. We’re looking to keep it under $2 million per patient,” Clark said in a statement. “If we are successful in developing a commercialized product, we are looking at upwards of $40 billion in sales from the U.S. market alone. I think our investors will be happy with that.”

Clark, a lifelong advocate for people with bleeding disorders and founder of the 2018 non-profit HemoAware Corporation, founded the brand-new company this year with the goal of restoring normal gene function through CRISPR editing.

Code and Theory and Scout Health form New Code and Theory Health

 

Clockwise: Michael Treff, Jennifer Brekke, Dan Gardner, and Raffi Siyahian will form the executive management team of Code and Theory Health.

Code and Theory has established Code and Theory Health, a new unit dedicated to servicing brands and organizations within the healthcare industry. Additionally, fellow Stagwell Group company Scout Health will now operate under the Code and Theory Health banner while still remaining a distinct brand. Scout Health is a 100-person agency and the nation’s longest operating agency focused on rare diseases, orphan drugs, and specialty pharmaceuticals.

“We saw an important gap in the market that Code and Theory Health fills, as there has been a lack of legitimate options for digitally transformational healthcare services,” Dan Gardner, Code and Theory’s CEO and Founder, said in a statement. “Code and Theory Health combines Scout Health’s crucial in-category healthcare expertise with Code and Theory’s digital perspective that it has leveraged to help transform other industries.”

Condé Nast Health Launches Obsidian

Condé Nast Health introduced its cookie-less digital solution—Obsidian. AI-powered machine learning combines Condé Nast’s content intelligence, audience models, and audience interactions to reach high-intent audiences in the moments that matter most. Amid the scramble for digital targeting alternatives before Google eliminates third-party cookies, Condé Nast Health provides a unique way to capture contextual insights through the lens of audiences and their behaviors, delivering powerful outcomes without cookie limitations.

Obsidian scores content based on contextual relevance such as keywords related to a particular medical condition, and then optimizes based on frequency, placement, and sentiment. Obsidian is loaded with features that allow health advertisers to customize their digital campaigns, which includes the ability to exclude specific keywords or pages from targeting, and performance layering, which provides the option to add on performance data to targeting, (such as click-through rates, time spent on a page, unique views, and the number of page views) to ensure the ads only appear on the highest performing pages.

Apollo Acquires SurveyHealthcareGlobus

Apollo Intelligence Corporation, a platform company that delivers data insights for marketing research to life sciences companies, acquired SurveyHealthcareGlobus, a global data collection and custom survey company. Apollo made the acquisition to support its modern research services and tools for global customers.

“Our acquisition of SHG is an important step in the evolution of Apollo, dramatically expanding global access to first-party data, adding a great brand in our industry and forging innovative research techniques,” said John Almeida, Apollo Board Chairman, in a statement. “We envision that over time, Apollo will build and grow its capabilities to support all of our healthcare and life sciences clients. We see a significant opportunity in this marketplace and are thrilled to partner with the SHG management team to build on their successes to date.”

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