With the bad news about
torcetrapib barely out, Peter Corr, Pfizer’s senior
vice president of Science and Technology, had a lot to
say about innovation, failure, and success at the New
York Pharma Forum on December 8th. Pfizer had to
shelve the drug, one of its bright hopes for future
profits, because of concerns about side effects. (see
"How Will Pfizer Fare," pg. 12, for more).
"The big problem
is attrition and how we deal with it." Corr said,
not surprisingly.
"We deal with a
lot of unknowns in our business," he added,
pointing out that one of the major problems for
pharmaceutical companies is the extremely long product
development cycle. Torcetrapib’s odyssey, for
example, began in 1992. "This was a huge
hit," he said about the drug, "And what
usually happens in response to events like this is
risk aversion."
But how can companies
continue to be innovative if they are avoiding
high-risk projects?
Another panel member,
James Greenwood, president and CEO of BIO, added,
"You can’t get innovation without investment,
but investors also want to see reduced risk."
Greenwood said,
"For a return on investment to be predictable,
you need a predictable level of reimbursement,"
and the new Congress’ push for the government to
negotiate drug prices "is not a fair
situation." The United States has always paid the
most for drugs to make up for lower prices charged
elsewhere. A shift in reimbursement pricing
"could undermine the confidence of
investors," Greenwood explained. Whatever
Congress decides, big changes are clearly ahead.
Pfizer, said Corr, is
starting to look at the pharmaceutical market in a new
way. "We have to start selling health solutions,
and that is very different from selling a pill."
This approach means considering how medicines are
used, looking into diagnostics, and "going into
things like biomarkers," he said. "We have
to think about how we sell it all as a package."
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