PCI grows beyond contract packaging, acquires UK's Penn Pharma

Adds drug development services to its clinical, commercial packaging

Packaging Coordinators, Inc. (Philadelphia), which started with the contract packaging operations of Cardinal Health and then picked up the same from AmerisourceBergen just over a year ago, has now added Penn Pharma (Tredegar, Wales) to its portfolio. While PCI's core business is mostly commercial contract packaging (it recently began adding capabilities for clinical trial product supply and services), Penn Pharma brings both drug development and clinical trial services to the mix. If the company hasn't become a full-blown contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO) already

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Pharma rep access: down, down, down

Latest ZS AccessMonitor asks, 'Who are [physicians] listening to?'

The annual update from ZS Associates (Chicago), a consulting firm on sales and related practices in life sciences, finds that 51% of physicians were considered "accessible" this year, as compared to 55% in 2013. "Though this year's drop was less precipitous than in previous years, it reflects the steady decline in access over the past decade," concludes the report. Data are based on call reports for over 200 pharma sales teams, meeting with approximately 325,000 prescribers. "Accessible" means those who were not either "access restricted" (who met with 31-70% of the reps who called on them) or

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Federal government renews charges of illicit drug distribution involving FedEx

Dispute continues the ongoing battles between drug distributors and DEA

According to statements from the US Attorney, Northern District of California, and FedEx, the US Dept. of Justice is charging FedEx with "conspiracy to traffic in controlled substances," mostly arising from the practice, common several years ago but less so now, of handling shipments from online "pharmacies" (many of which are not actually pharmacies) that sell controlled substances and other drugs to US consumers directly. FedEx is entangled in this dispute because it handled the shipments, which date back to 2004. "FedEx is innocent of the charges ... we will plead not guilty

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Agency rides the rare-disease wave

Siren Interactive hires more executives, moves to downtown Chicago

Siren Interactive, a relatively small agency specializing in rare-disease therapies marketing, is taking some big steps forward as its business continues to grow. The company has hired Suzanne Tsuchiya, an industry veteran formerly with the agencies Abelson Taylor and closerlook, as president; also Neil Rubenstein, a 15-year veteran of the agency business, as senior manager, media and analytics. Two other appointments were also announced. Wendy White, founder of Siren, remains as CEO; this year she is also the president-elect of the Healthcare Businesswomen's Assn.,

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Evaluate Pharma forecast: 2020 global pharma sales of $1.107 trillion

After patent expiries, 'The industry has turned a corner'

The World Preview 2014 from Evaluate Pharma (US HQ: Boston) totes up current worldwide pharma sales, assesses pipeline products, and projects industry growth to 2020. According to Paul Hills, head of operations, the "quality" (i.e., projected market value) of new drugs approved by FDA in 2013 increased by 43% over the previous year; this marks a "step change in innovation and output for the industry since 2009." Nine of the top ten introduced that year (led by Gilead Science's Sovaldi) will

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Envirotainer wins FAA approval for its cold-chain containers on US air freighters

Meanwhile, competitor CSafe Global broadens its containers' usability

The active-powered unit-load device (ULD) for shipping temperature-controlled products was pioneered by Envirotainer (Upplands Vasby, Sweden) years ago, but its use by air carriers has been limited to flights originating outside the US because it lacked FAA approval. Now, the company has been granted FAA approval for its RKN unit, putting it in direct competition with CSafe Global (Dayton, OH), whose RKN unit has been approved by both FAA and the European Aviation Safety Agency. The wider use of the Envirotainer ULD won't be immediate; the company says that a technical-acceptance process

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Deloitte appoints a new leader of its life sciences industry practice: Homi Kapadia

Deloitte veteran is a board director of the company

Deloitte LLP (New York) has announced the appointment of Homi Kapadia, a 28-year veteran at the company, as leader of its life sciences industry practice, which employs nearly 4,000 professionals serving biopharma, med device and consumer health industries in the US. He takes over from Terry Hisey, principal, Deloitte Consulting LLP, who has transitioned to a top client-service position for the practice, according to a company statement. Kapadia will guide the practice to deliver a "cross sector" viewpoint to clients in light of their growing interdependency on other sectors as the health system converges around population health and value-based incentives

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European Commission chooses a logo to validate online pharmacies

European consumers will eventually have a pan-European method of checking pharmacy legitimacy

Following through on one element of its comprehensive Falsified Medicinal Products Directive (2011/62/EU), the European Commission has selected a logo design that will appear on online-pharmacy websites and other retailers, starting roughly a year from now. The logo (pictured) is a stripe with a cross appearing in outline; the box in the middle left of the logo will have the flag of the EU country where the pharmacy is established. Behind the logo--still to be finalized

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JLL ranking of US life sciences clusters again puts Boston on top

San Francisco bounces back as No. 2; NJ/NYC/Westchester moves up to No. 5

One of the highlights of the BIO international convention each year is the release of a report from JLL, the international commercial real-estate management and consulting firm, of its ranking of life sciences "clusters"--regions where life sciences companies tend to concentrate. Life sciences (biopharma, medical devices and crop science--the latter in keeping with the BIO organization's interests there) have been a preeminent attractor of state and regional economic development funds, in part because the lively venture-capital investing (especially of late) takes small labs to big manufacturing/research organizations with high-paying jobs

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Global pharma industry will spend $8.36 billion on cold-chain logistics in 2014

Pharmaceutical Commerce's latest report finds continued growth in these specialized logistics services

The 5th edition of the Biopharma Cold Chain Sourcebook analyzes economic, regulatory and technological trends in a vital part of today's industry: the shipment of temperature-controlled products. The just-published report calculates that current (2014) expenditures for commercial shipments will be $8.36 billion, rising to $10.28 billion in 2018. By comparison, last year's Sourcebook estimated the 2013 cold-chain business to be $7.5 billion, rising

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