PHARMA-2020. Shaping the future of the pharmaceutical industry
Philip Snegirev, Weekly "Pharmacy"
On February 27 of this year, another pharmaceutical conference was held in London, organized by the authoritative international business publication "The Economist" ("Economist Conferences") – "Pharma 2020. Shaping the future of the pharmaceutical industry». If the name of the conference exudes sky–high futurism (it's no joke – at the current pace of development of civilization to look beyond the veil of the third decade), then its motto – to shape the future - is deeply constructive. To discuss topical issues of our time and the prospects of tomorrow and the day after tomorrow, the flower of the world pharmaceutical industry is going here – a kind of pharmaceutical Davos. As before, our publication was the only participant from the post-Soviet space. The leading sponsor of the event was IMS Health, a company operating in more than 100 countries, providing its clients worldwide with comprehensive evidence–based data on the pharmaceutical market and the healthcare industry, providing them with up-to-date utilitarian information, analytical support and advisory services that allow them to develop effective business strategies, find optimal solutions and achieve successful results..
Traditionally, the conference was opened, chaired and moderated by Dr. Richard Barker, Director General of the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI). Warmly greeting the audience, the leading figure of European pharma briefly outlined his vision of the burning moments of the current stage of development of the global pharmaceutical sector and some of the challenges that time will throw at it tomorrow and in the more distant future. But before that, I conducted a cursory historical tour of the last three pharmaceutical conferences of The Economist.
So, three years ago, they described a "perfect storm" shaking the global pharmaceutical industry (expiration of patents, increased development time, desolation of productive research highways (pipeline), instability of many markets, leading to a more complicated regulatory environment, etc.).
Next year, the conference participants focused on the trend of pharmaceutical companies from focusing on the promotion of medicines to partnership with the healthcare system, to jointly finding solutions to acute medical problems that can most fully and quickly meet the needs of patients waiting for them. Instead of "develop and sell" – "innovate and fulfill obligations".
Finally, during last year's conference, emphasis was placed on the possibility (and necessity) of improving the management system and approaches to management, optimizing the use of available resources in order to save money, adequate and correct assessment of the production activities of pharmaceutical manufacturers – based not so much on monthly reports on product sales volumes, but on the therapeutic value for patients of the proposed medical solutions.
What is the final result of these decisions in the context of improving the medical care provided to the population – that's what a pharmaceutical manufacturer should think and be happy about first of all.
According to the speaker, the global pharmaceutical industry has now reached a precedent level of changes. And the future belongs to those pharmaceutical companies that will learn to save money: first of all, the patient, and secondly, their own (which is very interconnected).
The "leitmotif 2020" proposed by him for global pharma sounds like this: the right drug at the right time. If you do not reduce the time and money spent on the development of new medicines, then the pharmaceutical industry will face serious economic difficulties. And not only economic!
Patients are forced to wait too long for solutions that are vital for them to cure diseases – finally, many of them, without waiting, die. This devalues the work of the pharmaceutical industry, undermines public confidence in it and healthcare in general, which in terms of consequences is even worse than economic difficulties.
Concluding the preamble, Dr. R. Barker expressed gratitude to the organizer of the conference "The Economist" and sponsors "IMS Health" and "sanofi-aventis", noting that such meetings and discussions help not only to better understand the basic mechanisms and patterns of the global pharmaceutical industry as a fundamentally important, powerful and advanced echelon of the healthcare system, – but also to develop the concept of moving the industry forward in this rapidly and continuously, like Solaris, changing world.
Such meetings of professionals allow joint intellectual efforts to try to look beyond the time horizon: to anticipate and reflect the impending counter problems as much as possible, to adapt as effectively as possible to the changing business environment, but at the same time - to adapt it to yourself and for yourself, actively shaping the future.
After that, wishing the participants fruitful work, the chairman launched the first plenary session entitled "Pharma 2020 – is the industry ready?".
The debut of the conference was played: John Patterson, Executive Director (Drug Development), Member of the Board of AstraZeneca, Robert Wessman, President and CEO of Actavis, Nigel Brooksby, Managing Director of Sanofi-Aventis in the UK, and Mike Owen (Mike Owen), Senior Vice President (Biological Medicines) of GlaxoSmithKline.
We will definitely touch upon the performances of the masters on the pages of the following issues of the Weekly PHARMACY, and in this introductory publication we will acquaint the reader in more detail with the original view of Robert Wessman, formulated in his report "Is the existing business model of the pharmaceutical industry suitable for the future?".
Inviting to speak and introducing the speaker to the audience, Dr. R. Barker emphasized the non-randomness of his presence in the narrow circle of top management of the giants of the global pharmaceutical industry: headed by R. Wessman since 2002, the company "Actavis" has demonstrated phenomenal growth and a breakthrough in development bordering on metamorphosis, literally in a few years turning from a small local Icelandic enterprise into one of the main actors of the global generic pharmaceutical scene.
The main drivers of the future development of the healthcare industry were listed by the speaker:
• Demographic trends. Life expectancy increases by approximately 1 year every decade. Thus, by 2030, more than a third of Europeans will be over the age of 60. This promises a significant increase in age-related diseases; in addition, according to forecasts, from the beginning of the second decade of this century, the birth rate boom will decline, which will also contribute to the overall aging of the population.
• The progress of medicine, in particular the decoding of the genetic code, the use of cloning methods and biological developments in therapeutic technologies.
• The dynamics of the market, which is characterized by the "erosion" of prices, the dominance of drugs that do not have therapeutic advantages over existing ones ("me-too"), weakening returns from R & D, the emergence of previously unknown diseases and related health challenges, again, the aging of the population.
• Technological progress that allows the use of nanotechnology and the implantation of micro sensors into the patient's body; ensures the accuracy of dosing of drug therapy, etc.
In the near future, even more large-scale changes are expected in the global pharmaceutical industry. So, for the period 2007-2012. blockbusters with total sales will lose the validity of their patents in the United States, which will entail a new round of competition – both generic and price.
An increase in R&D costs does not result in an increase in the number of new active pharmaceutical ingredients approved for use. Pharmaceutical companies are increasingly focusing their attention on young, rapidly developing markets, and as for the mentioned drugs "me-too" ("me too"), sometimes they want to be renamed "too many" ("too many")!
According to R. Wessman, for the survival of the pharmaceutical industry in the long term, the business model should be rebuilt, it should be given a more holistic approach. It is necessary to refocus the system from the PRODUCT and the DISEASE to HEALTH MANAGEMENT – to turn from the treatment of the disease to its prevention.
The achieved level of technical and medical progress makes it possible to do this – both at the level of diagnostics, which should be aimed at PRE-DIAGNOSIS, that is, the earliest possible detection of diseases (genetic methods, implantable sensors, etc.), and treatment (the latest biological drugs with a new mechanism of action and a lower level of side effects are offered).
The current business model of the pharmaceutical industry is built mainly in a horizontal sequence: R&D > production > sales > marketing > patient (to whom the influences of a medical institution, a polyclinic doctor, a pharmacy worker, and the healthcare system as a whole are directly directed).
The upcoming business model should be built as a model of a HEALTH MANAGEMENT COMPANY that focuses its activities no longer on a product or disease, but on a specific patient.
Health management, in particular, provides for:
• early detection of the disease and identification of risks;
• targeted and more effective drug therapy:
• fewer side effects;
• target distribution of the active substance in the body;
• synchronization with hospital treatment;
• first-class information support and advice on all aspects of health management.
Robert Wessman is confident that such a business model will ultimately achieve an increase in the expected duration and improve the quality of life of people.
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15.04.2008