BrandweekNRX

'Did I just meet with the mob?' Amgen customer asks.

At first, the Amgen sales director chatted about the hot weather when she called on a small Baltimore chain of kidney dialysis clinics. Then, according to the chain’s chief financial officer, she delivered a chilling warning.

Crescent Heights Dialysis Center in Los Angeles, like many of its counterparts, administers Amgen’s drug Epogen.

If the clinics switched from Amgen’s anemia drug to a new medicine planned by a big competitor, and then the competing drug was knocked off the market by an Amgen patent lawsuit, the chain might have to pay a much higher price to resume using Amgen’s drug.

“And I was like, ‘Did I just meet with the mob?’” said Tracey Mooney, the chain’s chief financial officer, recalling the July 2006 exchange. Amgen, she said, was effectively threatening to turn her clinics, run by the nonprofit Independent Dialysis Foundation, into a money-losing operation.

In its legal briefs, Amgen says that any “alleged threats,” even if they were made, were inconsequential. 

I'm sure that is how Amgen feels; the dialysis center has perhaps a different opinion.

Full story in the New York Times.

Killer Drug in Sweden: Vargflocken (The Wolf Pack)

My new thriller Killer Drug will be officially launched in Sweden next week, which is one reason I'm visiting my old home country this week.

The major Internet stores, such as Adlibris and Bokus have kindly placed it on their front pages . . . we're waiting for some key reviews in the U.S. and then we can launch with some proper noise in the U.S. as well.

Here is the Swedish front cover:

And if you want to read the entire cover in swedish, you can click on image below.

Internet on the train? No problem, just go to Sweden.

I'm in Sweden this week, giving lectures about the pharma industry to the Swedish Parliament; at journalist and industry meetings; and at my alma mater.

That means I must travel by train, and most of my readers have to do this as well, back in the U.S. So I thought I should share the experience of traveling by train in Sweden vs. going on one in the U.S.

First, the Stockholm train station is modern and clean.

Second, the train is really fast, Stockholm to Gothenburg, 350 miles, in three hours.

Third, the interior is fresh and looks like this:

By the way, don't miss the hardwood floor in the Cafe.

Finally, not only do they have food, but free broadband Internet connection the entire trip and I wrote and posted this from a train going at 100 mph.

Oh, and a round-trip ticket for the 350 mile trip can be had for about $50.

Amtrak: Drop dead!

Docs feel betrayed by social networking site.

Doctors can sign up and talk to each other on social networking site Sermo. Only licensed physicians living in the U.S. are allowed in.

And so far the only ones listening have been venture capitalists, paying for the privilige of getting a peak at what docs really think.

No advertising and everyone was happy.

But now Pfizer has become a partner in the site. And no one knows what that will mean.

The docs ain't happy.

“I am not a fan of PhRMA…and I am especially not thrilled at the idea that they will now have one more way to ‘get at’ physicians via Sermo.” Writes another: “Any influence from Pfizer has to be absolutely marked and labeled loud and clear! I am sick and tired of industry people sneaking in their subtle, hard-to-detect influences into everything and every media corner money can buy.” Another warns: “No Pfizer docs acting like reps in here!” Says one doc: “There is no way Pfizer is interested in anything but marketing in this ‘partnership.’ ”

“I’ll add this to my list at www.declineandfallofwesterncivilization.com,” one laments. “Daniel, you let the enemy in,” one concludes. “Shame on you.”

Full story over at pharmalot.

Hedge fund trader claims his boss forced him to take estrogen which caused him to wear women's clothes.

A junior trader, Andrew Z. Tong, formerly of SAC Capital, has filed a sexual harassment against SAC Capital and one of its top traders named Ping Jiang.

A New York State judge has now sealed the case. According to CNBC the judge said he sealed the details of Tong’s allegations contained in the lawsuit because it is not in the public interest to disclose the salacious nature of the complaints.

BrandweekNRX has learned from CNBC that the suit includes the following allegations made by Tong against Jiang:

• After being hired at SAC, Tong alleges that Jiang came to him and told him he had a trading method in which his traders must not be too aggressive; that traders must be more effeminate and to do so, he directed Tong to begin taking female hormones.
• Tong says he then took the female hormones that he bought on the black market.
• Tong then alleges he suffered emotional and physical distress. The hormones, he says, caused him to begin wearing women's clothes. He also could not perform sexually with his wife, who wanted to have a baby.
• Tong says the sexual harassment included sexual relations between the two men.

SAC Capital and Jiang vehemently denying the charges, saying in a statement that: “SAC conducted a thorough investigation and found these scurrilous accusations to be false. We will vigorously defend ourselves and are confident that these claims will be swiftly rejected in arbitration.”

Tong was terminated by SAC Capital in April 2006 after working there less than a year. SAC, according to people close to the firm, say he was fired for cause. Tong, according to others, claim he was forced out of the firm.

Professor Jan-Åke Gustafsson from the Karolinska Institute conducts research on estrogen. He says that some studies indicate that estrogen may improve memory, but cautions that men should never use estrogen. "It would be crazy for men to take estrogen. This would make them impotent, and I don't think many men would accept that," professor Gustafsson said.

Medicare drug plan for elderly is a rip-off, according to new report

Medicare patients could have saved almost $15 billion in 2007 if private health insurers had more reasonable sales expenses and profits, and had managed to negotiate bigger discounts, a report from Democratic staff of a House of Representatives panel said on Monday.

The report stated that administrative expenses, sales costs and profits at private insurers offering Medicare drug plans were almost six times higher than the administrative costs of regular Medicare coverage, to the tune of almost $5 billion or about $180 per beneficiary in 2007.

The insurers' profits will account for $1 billion, the report said. It also stated that companies failed to negotiate sufficient rebates from drug makers.

Insurers received discounts of only by 8.1 percent, which was far less than the 26 percent the Medicaid program secured from drug manufacturers. Medicaid is a state and federal insurance program for the poor.

"Privatizing the delivery of the drug benefit has enriched the drug companies and insurance industry at the expense of seniors and taxpayers," California Rep. Henry Waxman said in a statement on Monday. He released the report with 12 Democrats on his committee.

Health: Want to know what 200 calories look like?

Go here to find one hundred additional images.

A new productivity tool has arrived for pharma marketers

The Chrono Shredder's function is not to show the current moment, like a calendar. Instead, it shows the nearest future (the next day) — and all the time that has past from the time the device has been switched on. If you don't feel stressed out yet, you may with this calendar. It might just remind you that days gone will never come back . . . more info here.

The Chrono Shredder is a device that makes past time tangible. It is a hybrid between calendar, clock and waste producing automaton. It has no on/off-button, thus it is unstoppable, just like time. It features the 365 days of the year represented on a paper-roll. The paper-roll is led through a hacked paper-shredder, which is programmed to use exactly 24 hours to shred one "day".

Pfizer tries to distance itself from CEO's contribution to Hillary.

CNBC contacted Pfizer to find out what they had to say about the fact that the Pfizer CEO supports liberal Hillary Clinton who used to advocate major healthcare reform. This was what Pfizer had to say:

Ok, so let's analyze that. Pfizer is correct that the information is easily accessible, so Jeff can't hide anything. (After all, what are they going to say?)

But then comes the interesting part, trying to distance Pfizer from Jeff Kindler's personal donations, by saying, "These donations are distinct from Pfizer PAC, which supports candidates approved by an independent steering committee of employees."

So why would they write about Pfizer's PAC?

Well, as Mike Huckman from CNBC wrote in his earlier post "The former Chairman and CEO of Pfizer, Hank McKinnell, was a dyed-in-the-wool Republican and one of President Bush's "Rangers"--no, not a player on the baseball team he used to own, but someone who brought in six-figures to the Bush campaigns. "

And some Pfizer employees are now going nuts on CafePharma, asking colleagues to stop their contributions to Pfizer's PAC.

Oh dear. It appears I created a bit of a mess by writing about Jeff's preference for Hillary.

Wall Street Journal picks up BrandweekNRX story on Pfizer CEO supporting Hillary.

Pharma CEOs Divide Political Loyalties

Posted by Jacob Goldstein

Pfizer CEO Jeff Kindler has donated a couple grand to Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign, a post over on Brandweek NRX points out.

Not terribly surprising, perhaps, given Clinton’s new ideas on health care, and Kindler’s history of donating to Democrats. But it’s sure a switch for Pfizer’s top brass. Kindler’s predecessor Hank McKinnell showered his dough on Republicans (with few exceptions), according to data from the Federal Election Commission. (Enter “McKinnell” on this page at the FEC to see for yourself.)

But it’s always interesting to learn how pharma fat cats are using their cash to play politics — especially at a time when Washington’s buzzing about health care. So the Health Blog did a little digging at this Center for Responsive Politics web site to see what other drug company CEOs are up to. Here are a few interesting tidbits:

• Pfizer’s Kindler isn’t afraid to put some money on a longshot — in addition to giving $2,300 to Clinton, he gave $2,300 to Chris Dodd, a presidential candidate and senator from Kindler’s current home state, Connecticut. Dodd’s chances of becoming president are about the same as torcetrapib becoming Pfizer’s next blockbuster.
• Amgen CEO Kevin Sharer has been ladling out gravy left and right — $26,000 to the Republican Senatorial and Congressional campaign committees, and another $26,000 to the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional campaign committees. On top of that, he’s given to Hillary Clinton, John McCain, Mitt Romney and assorted senators. Makes sense for a guy running a company whose cash-cow anemia drugs have been facing lots of scrutiny in Washington.
• Abbott Laboratories’ Miles White, on the other hand, is a party-line man. He gave $15,000 to the Republican Party of Illinois (where Abbott is headquartered), $5,000 to the National Republican Congressional Committee, and smaller donations to Senator Ted Stevens (R-Ak.), Congressman Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

The data go back to the beginning of this year, and were downloaded from the SEC on Sept. 24. So there may be some donations that aren’t captured here.