Articles

We have already considered in previous articles the role of the nurse adviser and how nurses cope with the transition from NHS into a commercial environment. This month we look at how nurse advisers a
We have already considered in previous articles the role of the nurse adviser and how nurses cope with the transition from NHS into a commercial environment. This month we look at how nurse advisers and medical representatives can get the best out of their working relationship, without compromising ethical standards. The Medical Representative’s Perspective Nurse adviser teams are still a fairly new concept. Many representatives still have little or no direct experience of working for a company that sponsors such a team. This means that there is often a lack of understanding of how these tea…

As R&D costs rise steadily and restrictions on profit squeeze tighter, pharma companies must maintain large commercial and development portfolios in order to remain competitive.
It is a palpable fact that you cannot work in the pharmaceutical industry of the 21st century without coming across a merger or acquisition at some time in your career. As R&D costs rise steadily and restrictions on profit squeeze tighter, pharma companies must maintain large commercial and development portfolios in order to remain competitive. The easiest way to increase your product line is, of course, to buy or in some way amalgamate with another company with an established and complementary portfolio itself. Since the 1980’s pharmaceutical companies have been constantly merging with and acquiring othe…

The sampling process is repeated on a daily basis across the pharmaceutical industry with billions of dollars expended each year.
In the year 2000, US pharmaceutical companies spent 16 billion dollars supporting the distribution and marketing of prescription drug samples to physicians. A full 50% of those costs went directly to communicating the value of the products and another 26% went to the detailing, distribution, and management of the samples. Over the course of a typical month, the average pharmaceutical sales representative will visit 150 physicians, distribute thousands of packages of drug samples, obtain FDA required signatures on 150 sample distribution forms, receive scores of new sample cartons to their home-based office, and expend as much as 25% of their time tediously man…

In turbulent economic times, the need to streamline businesses and control costs is always of paramount importance. This is true whether your strategic mission is to be a low-cost producer or an inno
In turbulent economic times, the need to streamline businesses and control costs is always of paramount importance. This is true whether your strategic mission is to be a low-cost producer or an innovator in your industry. Top executives have often turned to Supply Chain Management in an attempt to achieve these goals. But how do you get past the rhetoric of Supply Chain Management theory that so often is populated with clichés and little real-world action? The solution is not to focus simply on the theory or tactics of Supply Chain Management. These are well known. Rather, we must als…

The role of Clinical Research Associate (CRA) is a vital one in the pharmaceutical industry and as such commands both significant responsibility and impressive remuneration. A Clinical Research Associ
The role of Clinical Research Associate (CRA) is a vital one in the pharmaceutical industry and as such commands both significant responsibility and impressive remuneration. A Clinical Research Associate’s principle role is in monitoring the progress of a Clinical Trial either from an overall standpoint, or focused on an individual area of the trial such as initiation, ensuring the scientific integrity of the data collected or monitoring the well-being of the trial patients. A well-trained and knowledgeable CRA plays a vital role in helping to reduce the time between drug discovery and marketi…

In this two part series we look at 35 typical interview questions taken from countless interviews throughout the UK and North America over the last ten years along with 5 typical questions targetted s
An interview is not like an exam and shouldn’t be treated like one, it is an organic process, the pattern of which changes with every question asked or answered and it is designed to let all the participants establish who is the right person for a specific role within an organisation. You should always remember that the interview process is as much about you deciding whether you want to work for a company as it is about the interviewer(s) deciding whether you are right for a particular role. In this first of a two part series we look at 35 typical interview questions taken from countless int…

What is a portion of fruit? Does one orange = 100 peas or 200? Do you have to eat a whole pumpkin if you can’t find a banana?
With the Christmas/New Year blow-out now consigned to history and resolutions hanging by a thread it’s doubtless the case that many of you have vowed to eat five or more portions of fruit or veg a day as part of your new healthy living regime. But even though this seems like the easiest part of the scheduled new you (well, apart from ‘joining’ a gym) the glossy weekend supplements that have taught us all that five portions a day is the minimum you should be getting (quiet at the back) don’t usually go into details about what constitutes a portion (if I have to come back there, there’ll be trouble). So what is it? Does one orange = 100 peas or 200? Do you have to eat…

There has always been a steady flow of nurses who have been tempted away from the NHS to become medical representatives. In the last 5-10years, however, the number of nurses joining our industry has
There has always been a steady flow of nurses who have been tempted away from the NHS to become medical representatives. In the last 5-10years, however, the number of nurses joining our industry has dramatically increased due to the rise of the role of Nurse Adviser. Last month’s article attempted to shed some light on these roles. This month we take the nurse’s view to try and understand their motivations for joining the industry and to get an insight into how they cope with the transition into a commercial environment. Why leave the NHS? If you took a straw poll of nurses in the NHS you wo…

Increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are moving towards flexible human resource management by employing core permanent staff and utilising contract associates to meet short to medium term resourcing
Answers for both those who have vacancies to fill and those who are actively looking for a new position It is well recognised that a flexible approach to staffing is needed in order to meet the peaks and troughs of activity during the drug development process. Increasingly, pharmaceutical companies are moving towards flexible human resource management by employing core permanent staff and utilising contract associates to meet short to medium term resourcing needs. Such contract personnel are available through three main categories of organisation : CRO’s CRO’s may offer their own permanen…

Nurse Adviser teams have seen a rapid growth over the last 5 years, yet they remain an area of mystery for many. This article, the first of a series of 3, aims to start to shed some light on the role
Nurse Adviser teams have seen a rapid growth over the last 5 years, yet they remain an area of mystery for many. This article, the first of a series of 3, aims to start to shed some light on the role of Nurse Adviser within the pharmaceutical industry. The Growth of Nurse Advisers Nurse Adviser (or Advisor), Nurse Facilitator and Nurse Specialist are just some of the titles applied to Nurses working on a wide variety of programmes sponsored by pharmaceutical companies. There are great variances in their day to day roles, therapeutic specialities and programme objectives but the one commonali…

A role as a medical sales rep is difficult to land, but with determination, persistence and a little advice from us you too could soon be warming a seat in a GPs waiting room, craving that elusive thr
One of the most common queries received at PharmiWeb Towers is from career changers or recent graduates looking to get into the field of medical sales. The attraction is understandable, repping offers excellent salaries and the potential for even better bonuses, company cars are standard and of high quality, training is excellent and many ethical pharmaceutical manufacturers are the very definition of blue-chip companies. A role as a medical sales rep is difficult to land, but with determination, persistence and a little advice from us you too could soon be warming a seat in a GPs waiting room…

Maybe there’s a reason why the symbol for the indulgent season – that period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day – is a jolly, large man in a red suit. As sure as Santa and his sleigh, extra poun
Maybe there’s a reason why the symbol for the indulgent season – that period between Thanksgiving and New Year’s Day – is a jolly, large man in a red suit. As sure as Santa and his sleigh, extra pounds come around every holiday season. “Planning to prevent unwanted weight gain is one of the best gifts you can give yourself this holiday season,” said Carolyn O’Neil, registered dietitian and former CNN journalist who has reported on food and nutrition for over 20 years. According to a National Institutes of Health study, the weight people gain during the holiday season adds up year after…

Whatever the government’s eventual solution it needs to be creative, quick and sustainable as throwing money at the problem might win elections but won’t address fundamental flaws in the NHS.
Labour swept back to power in May on a platform of reform for public services, and specifically the National Health Service. Cynics might suggest that the government fought an effective campaign in an area where the population could still be feasibly encouraged to lay blame on eighteen years of Tory rule, but the nation’s desire for an efficient, reliable health service was amply demonstrated by the landslide Labour enjoyed. Mr Blair has since pledged to bring an extra 20,000 nurses into the NHS by 2005, pin-pointing the solving of the crisis in nurse recruitment as a fundamental pre-cursor to a reliab…

One of the most common truisms trotted out by pub bores is that 90% of communication is non-verbal, but the fact that the majority of these people can’t find regular sexual partners demonstrates that,
One of the most common truisms trotted out by pub bores is that 90% of communication is non-verbal, but the fact that the majority of these people can’t find regular sexual partners demonstrates that, though we may all know that body language is important, very few of us are any good at it. No situation is more vital to get your body language right than the interview. Interviews are often pivotal points in life and yet up until shaking hands with the interviewer for the first time you are nothing to them but two sheets of professionally put together paper. So how do you wield that extra 90%…

The race is on, but while some companies try to get it right first time, others are just trying everything while mistakes are still an option. The difficulties lie in the choice: today there are sever
The race to effective e-business solutions is on. Case studies of successes and failures are multiplying E-business conferences for the pharma industry are proliferating and shifting from being about theoretical benefits to dealing with real case study, an example of how the market has matured in the past year. A Cap Gemini Ernst and Young/Insead survey published in May 2001 estimates that the Industry has invested between 0.5% and 1% of sales (approximately $2 billion) on e-business over the past year, with mixed results. The majority of respondents (70%) agree that the biggest impact will…

The pharmaceutical industry, like many others is guilty of being too forgiving of email’s shortcomings. We would never accept misdirection or non-delivery of a package delivered by a courier so why so
With ever mounting competition it is becoming increasingly important for pharmaceutical companies to leverage new technologies as a means of gaining competitive advantage. Indeed, a recent study by Accenture Research in the US showed that eighty percent of the world’s leading pharmaceutical companies believed Internet-related technologies could not only speed up time to market, but also reduce drug development costs and administration. There is little doubt that email has been one of these key technologies. It has benefited a number of business processes across the industry, speeding up comm…

With a few simple guidelines it’s possible to get yourself a healthy meal at any of the high streets takeaway staples.
Winter, the run in to Christmas, no beach holiday for the next 6 months at least, all of the above mean that having the figure of your dreams can be postponed for a while and the darkened evenings, exhausting post work shopping trips and better telly naturally lead the mind of the thinking person to the takeaway. But even though no strangers are going to have to see your body for a while, that’s no reason to leave your desire to eat healthily on the counter with the wildly ambitious tip dish. Takeaway food usually does away with considerations like low fat and salt, preferring instead to give us the deliciously unhealthy version of Chinese or Indian that always tastes so mu…

Statistics, properly audited and interpreted, allow you to establish hundreds of useful pieces of information about your customers after careful filtering from the enormous mass of information that is
It is a classic paradox of the new economy that a media that arose from the ground up offering free, democratic information access to all also provides companies and governments with an unparalleled opportunity to play at Big Brother. Putting aside these issues though, internet statistics are the single most vital aid to those responsible for websites. Statistics, properly audited and interpreted, allow you to establish hundreds of useful pieces of information about your customers after careful filtering from the enormous mass of information that is the logfile. The web is the ultimate weapon…

It may be dangerous talk in our industry but keeping fit can do more to keep you well than any number of blockbuster drugs, a gym membership can mean a whole new social life as well as a much fitter b
As the long nights draw in and the memories of beaches full of beautiful people trying to push you back out to sea and calling Greenpeace begin to be resolved in intensive therapy sessions, the thoughts of the professional office worker turn to gyms and a vague promise to ‘look good’ in time for next summer. Often these thoughts are as far as the potential adonis or adonette gets but if you are intent on getting into shape there are an exhausting number of gyms up and down the country trying to seduce you with special membership offers and cheap corporate membership. But how do you find your p…

The key to survival will be an effective transition from medicines retailer to medicines services provider. Successive government campaigns have exhorted people to turn to their pharmacist for health
The future looks bleak for the independent pharmacist, or so we are led to believe. The growing power of the supermarkets and their own brand of pharmacy has been impinging on the traditional pharmacists role for a number of years but the recent abolition of Resale Price Maintenance has led many to sound the death knell for the independent pharmacist. This attitude is, of course, both premature and alarmist. RPM was the last legalised price fixing arrangement in Britain and it was inevitable that it would go the way of all the others. There was outcry that the abolition of price fixing in the…