Chief Executive Mike Thompson is to retire from his role at the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) by the end of this year.

His decision to leave the association marks the end of a three-year run beginning in March 2016, when stepped in to take up the mantle from Alison Clough, who had served as the acting Chief Executive for much of 2015.

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Dr Reshma Kewalramani has been made the new Vertex CEO.

Vertex’s Chief Medical Officer Dr Kewalramani will succeed current CEO Jeffrey Leiden who has is now stepping aside from the role after seven years as Chief executive at the Boston-based firm. In stepping down Leiden will serve as executive chairman until the first quarter of 2023.     

Fourty-six year old Dr Kewalramani, who has been at Vertex since 2017, will thus become the first woman to head the firm. Prior to joining Vertex, Kewalramani spent more than 12 years at Amgen.

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The Royal College of Physicians (RCP) has appointed Dr Wajid Hussain as its new clinical director for digital health.

Dr Hussain, a cardiologist and cardiac electrophysicist at the Royal Brompton and Harefield NHS Trust, has a demonstrated interest in IT and health.

While he currently represents the views of clinicians on the Trust’s IT committee, Dr Hussain completed a Diploma in Digital Health Leadership at the NHS Digital Academy last year. He is also currently studying for a Master’s in Digital Health leadership at Imperial College London.

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Troy Robinson has been taken on as the new managing director of Chugai Pharma Europe. Mike Crosher will succeed him in his current role as managing director of Chugai Pharma UK.

Chugai Pharma Europe (CPE) has promoted Troy Robinson and Mike Crosher into the positions of managing director of CPE and managing director of the firm’s UK subsidiary, Chugai Pharma UK (CPU).

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Cerevel Therapeutics, a pharmaceutical company dedicated to treating neurological diseases, has appointed renowned biotechnology leader Tony Coles as Chief Executive Officer (CEO).

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The General Pharmaceutical Council has appointed Laura Fraser, former clinical fellow for the Scottish Chief Pharmaceutical Officer as the new Director for Scotland.

Fraser has held leadership roles in community pharmacy across Scotland including board member of Community Pharmacy Scotland. She has also worked for the Scottish Government as Clinical Leadership Fellow. Prior to her position as board member she was area and regional manager for nearly nine years.

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Sir Mark Walport, Chief Executive of UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the national funding agency responsible for science and research investment in the UK, has announced he is to retire for the role next year.

The decision to leave the organisation in 2020 will mark the end of a three-year tenure at its helm, beginning in 2017 when Walport was appointed to “create a single, ambitious organisation and provide the UK with a world class funding system to keep it at the forefront of global research and innovation”.

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Destiny Pharma, a clinical stage biotechnology company focused on the development of novel antimicrobial drugs to address the global crisis caused by antimicrobial resistance (AMR), has announced that after 18 years on the board, Joe Eagle is to step down with immediate effect.

Eagle has been instrumental in the financing and strategic direction of Destiny as a private company and brought his expertise for its lead candidate, XF-73 for the prevention of post-surgical infections. A search for a replacement is underway.

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Pfizer’s executive chairman Ian Read, is to be succeeded by CEO Albert Bourla with a date to start the post being January 1st 2020.

Mr Bourla, who joined Pfizer’s animal health division in 1993, succeeded Mr. Read from Chief Operating Officer as Chief Executive earlier this year in January, and will now go on to serve as Executive Chairman.

Mr Read has spent nine years in the role and has been at the company for a total of 41 years, first arriving in 1978 and becoming CEO in 2010, joining the board the following year.

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MSD have announced that David Peacock will become Managing Director in the UK and Ireland, succeeding former director Louise Houson, with a start date of October 1st 2019.

Peacock brings with him a broad range of experience and perspectives from senior roles within the company in the United States, Singapore, Vietnam and Japan. Most recently, David was Chief of Staff to Kenneth Frazier, Chairman of the board and Chief Executive Officer of MSD.

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The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has appointed Dr Richard Torbett as its new Chief Executive. He will assume the position on 1 January 2020.

The appointment comes after his predecessor, Mike Thompson, stepped down in June. He had served in the role since March 2016. Torbett was unanimously selected by the ABPI board after an external recruitment process with an executive search agency.

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Galecto has announced Bertil Lindmark as their new Chief Medical Officer. He began his posting on 1 February 2020.

Lindmark joins from the eTheRNA immunotherapies, which is a Belgian mRNA immunotherapy company. He has also had an extensive and successful career in the pharmaceutical industry.

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Neuronetics, Inc and Chris Thatcher, the President and CEO, have mutually agreed that he will step down from his positions in the company. He will provide transition services and advice to the company until 1 May 2020.

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Nordic Nanovector has appointed Dr Lars Nieba as the interim Chief Executive Officer. He is currently the company’s Chief Technology Officer and replaces Eduardo Bravo who as of today has left Nordic to pursue other career opportunities.

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Andreas Johannesson has been announced as Alligator Bioscience’s new interim Chief Financial Officer (CFO), replacing ex-CFO Per-Olof Schrewelius who it was previously confirmed will no longer serve the company.

Johannesson’s career has spanned 15 years in the consumer goods sector, with him managing the finances of firms including TeamOlmed, Stenqvist, Fitness23Seven and Haldex.

He spent a further nine years of his career as a strategic consultant with a focus on consumer goods, five of which were spent at global consulting firm McKinsey & Company.

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Ophthalmology specialist Alimera Sciences has announced that Steven T Gill is to return to the company in the newly created role of Vice President, Thought Leader Engagement.

Gill had previously served at Alimera as its Senior Director, Thought Leader Liaison, before leaving the company for Novartis, where he most recently held the position of Associate Director, Thought Leader Liaison at Novartis US.

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Lumos Pharma, Inc. has promoted Dr John McKew to the position of Chief Operating Officer effective 1 April 2020.

McKew is already Chief Scientific Officer and he will do both roles simultaneously. With his new role, he will lead Lumos’s clinical development plan as the company looks toward adding additional assets to its pipeline.

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BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics, a firm developing cellular therapies to tackle neurodegenerative diseases, has named industry Big Pharma veteran Dr David Setboun as its new Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer.

Dr Setboun has served for two decades at some of the biggest names in pharma. His most recent role was Vice President of Corporate Development, Strategy & Business at Life Biosciences, where he helped drive development of a range of vital commercial, operating and funding milestones.

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This was the first time in a long time that I’ve renewed my nursing license with the thought that I might need it — that I might be needed.

The post Preparing to Go Back to the Bedside During COVID-19: A Nurse-Turned-Bioethicist Reflects appeared first on Bill of Health.

Topics include off-label and compassionate drug use for COVID-19 and utilization and cost of naloxone for patients at high risk of opioid overdose.

The post Monthly Round-Up of What to Read on Pharma Law and Policy appeared first on Bill of Health.

Immigrant communities, along with communities of color and people experiencing existing health inequities, are expected to face disproportionate effects.

The post COVID-19 is a Perfect Storm of Hardship for US Immigrant Communities appeared first on Bill of Health.

The question must be: can we accommodate non-emergent/non-urgent care safely or not, and if yes, which care do we address first as we re-open?

The post When and How to Resume Non-Urgent Care During COVID-19 appeared first on Bill of Health.

In this video explainer, Christopher Robertson discusses the Right to Try Act and off-label use of pharmaceuticals with Alison Bateman-House.

The post Access to Drugs Before FDA Approval: Video Explainer with Christopher Robertson appeared first on Bill of Health.

Miami’s Phillip Frost, who built a $2.8 billion fortune in the generic drug business, was allegedly involved in a tawdry stock promotion scheme, the Securities and Exchange Commission says.

If we’re going to have a central database of conflict of interest disclosures in medicine – and there is one, created by law – it’s high time that people start using it.

Mass shooters appear to injure and kill more people when the use semiautomatic rifles instead of handguns, other types of rifles, or shotguns, according to a new analysis in the Journal of The American Medical Association. But the research has significant limitations.

Past experience says that when the FDA has the will to use its regulatory power, it can shake whole industries. Companies like Juul should tread extremely carefully.

This morning, Alydia Health, a tiny Menlo Park, Calif., startup co-founded by a 21-year-old woman, announced that it has secured $10 million in funding to test a medical device to prevent mothers from bleeding to death after childbirth.

The companies are committing to find ways to use their businesses to help patients with cancer.

Two different groups of researchers have shown that electrical stimulation of the spinal cord, combined with months of intense training, can allow some people who have been paralyzed to regain some walking ability.

The solutions enable continuous remote monitoring of body temperature and other vitals, either at home or in care centers, for clinical trials.

The companyâs SiteVault Free tool, designed to enable collaborating between sites and study monitors, now has a remote monitoring feature.

CAS, a division of the American Chemical Society, has released a dataset of chemical compounds with known or potential antiviral capabilities.

Led by Medable, the multi-company effort is geared toward ramping up development of treatments, diagnostics and other solutions for the pandemic-causing virus.

The company has incorporated electronic trial master file document storage capabilities to its Engility clinical trial management platform.

The research collaboration will seek to identify candidate biomarkers for a group of inflammatory conditions, using AI and other advanced technology.

Today’s guest post comes from Rob Brown, Vice President and General Manager of RxCrossroads by McKesson and Biologics by McKesson.

Rob discusses the importance of access, adherence, and affordability for specialty therapy patients who are uninsured, underinsured, or low-income. He describes three criteria companies should use to evaluate patient assistance program solutions.

Click here to learn more about program pharmacy solutions for biopharma from RxCrossroads by McKesson.

Read on for Rob’s insights.
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First, let me say thank you to all of the healthcare workers who are putting themselves at risk during this crisis.

As I noted last week, many of the crucial issues for our healthcare system will remain after we all get through this challenging period. In that regard, here’s a look at some noteworthy news from the past month:

• Sanofi discloses new data about insulin prices

• Excellent new academic research on list vs. net drug prices

• Three notable researchers overturn their earlier research on drug costs

• Amazon switches PBM vendors for some of its employees

Plus, we unveil the teaser trailer for Drug Channels Video!

P.S. Join the more than 9,000 followers of my daily links to neat stuff at @DrugChannels on Twitter. My recent tweets have highlighted such topics as:

• How GoodRx shares patients’ prescription data
• 2019 drug trend at Prime Therapeutics
• Controversy about the independent pharmacy market
• A new $5 generic mail order program, Medicare Part D reform
• Retail pharmacy’s future
• Job openings at Amazon 
• Frozen cookie dough
• And much more!

I have also been tweeting many under-the-radar stories about how the coronavirus affects drug channels.
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Today’s guest post comes from Scott Dulitz, Chief Strategy Officer at TrialCard. Scott discusses how combining payer intelligence with market-leading technology can enhance patient access.

TrialCard recently acquired Policy Reporter, a healthcare software solutions company that provides payer intelligence to the biopharmaceutical, medical device, and diagnostics industries. To learn more, schedule a demo of Policy Reporter or contact Scott (scott.dulitz@trialcard.com).

You can also register for Trialcard’s upcoming webinar: Leveraging Payer Intelligence in Patient Service Programs.

Read on for Scott’s insights.
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Today’s guest post comes from Miranda Gill, Senior Director of Provider Network at CoverMyMeds.

Miranda reviews how the pandemic affects the ability of healthcare workers to complete administrative responsibilities like prior authorization. She then outlines how electronic automation is helping patients get needed medications while face-to-face interactions are restricted.

Learn more about healthcare IT solutions for providers and patients in CoverMyMeds’ 2020 Medication Access Report, or schedule a virtual meeting.
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In Drug Channels Institute's list of the top 15 pharmacies of 2019, we show that many of the largest U.S. pharmacies are now central-fill mail and specialty pharmacies operated by PBMs and insurers.

To complement that broader ranking, we present below our exclusive list of the top 15 pharmacies based on specialty drug dispensing revenues. Consistent with our previous analyses, PBMs and insurers have retained their dominance over specialty drug channels, while smaller pharmacies are facing increased competition and profit pressures.

I see upside for specialty pharmacies in the aftermath of the pandemic. This growth will come at the expense of provider-administered drug channels. I expect the top companies’ share will increase in 2020, due to mergers and business transitions among the largest PBMs. However, the increasing role of government payers may create opportunities for smaller pharmacies.

This Friday, I’ll discuss how COVID-19 will affect the specialty pharmacy market during the first of my two live video webinars.

Over the next two weeks, Drug Channels Institute will host two live video webinars: Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: Retail & Specialty Pharmacies (May 1) and Industry Update and COVID-19 Impact: PBMs & Payers (May 8). CLICK HERE TO LEARN MORE AND SIGN UP. Contact Paula Fein (paula@drugchannelsinstitute.com) for our special promo codes for multiple viewing sites. DCI will donate 20% of all profits from these events to The Center for Disaster Philanthropy’s COVID-19 Response Fund.

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Today’s guest post comes from Trygve Anderson, Vice President of Commercial Pharmacy at Elsevier.

Trygve discusses trends and challenges to watch in 2020, including drug pricing transparency, the approval and interchangeability of biosimilars, and stakeholder access to timely and accurate data.

Learn more about Elsevier’s information analytics capabilities from its video: Evaluating Drug Data Yields Business Value.

Read on for Trygve’s insights.
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At just 1,000 light-years away, an object in a nearby star system could be our nearest known black hole—but not everyone is convinced

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

An astrophysicist traces genealogy and art history to discover the origin of the famous motto

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Being female is a risk factor for Alzheimer’s. Why?

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

That emotion is natural in a situation like this, but there are ways to mitigate it

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

With a few dollars, researchers replicated an instrument that typically costs thousands 

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

With cars off the roads, scientists can study how smog and other types of pollution change  

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

Safeguarding public health requires rethinking our relationship to the environment and the inequities that drive its destruction

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com

It’s essential if we’re going to protect our planet

-- Read more on ScientificAmerican.com