Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - (Page 2) From the Editor Value-based cynicism ast week saw eyeforpharma’s 7th Sales Force Effectiveness conference in Barcelona which, as well as affording me an opportunity to re-visit the excellent Cerveseria Catalana tapas bar on Calla Majorca, also brought me up to date on the new trends and buzzwords currently getting global sales directors and heads of marketing all a-flutter. The key word this year is ‘values,’ or, rather, valuebased selling, the move to which is being described as one of the most impactful that pharma can take to change its dialogue with new and existing customers “while trying to escape from the commoditisation gap.” Rather than engage in an exploration of ‘VBS’ in this short space, the one thing that struck me during these first-day presentations was a healthy sense of cynicism that emerged during the value-based discussion. One panellist, Bayer-Schering’s Frank Strelow, pointed out that maybe selling should have always been about ‘value’, while Solvay’s head of global commercial effectiveness Jean-Yves Brault conceded that very often, as sales leaders, “we’ve seen the same approach being renamed, repackaged and sold back to us.” A questioner from the audience astutely pointed out that sales For more on these news stories and all the latest breaking pharma news, look at our website www.pharmexeceurope.com L teams don’t just want another acronym, they need something that’s actually going to help to change things, while Novartis’s head of sales Huw Tippett recounted overhearing an old sales rep dispensing just one necessary piece of advice to a rookie: Basically, if you hit your KPIs you won’t get fired. Of course, said speakers followed their initial reservations with hearty endorsements of VBS, and underlined the point that, now more than ever, getting in touch with clients’ needs from a more sophisticated and subjective viewpoint is essential as the market tightens and the balance of power shifts. But one can’t help but wonder — amidst all the analysis of mutual value, customer insight, the empowered patient and transformation models — whether the ham-fisted approach of Huw Tippet’s old rep is one that will one day come back into fashion. That, however, wouldn’t leave much to talk about at a conference. Strong corporate strategy helps Bayer Despite challenging market conditions, the Bayer Group met its earnings targets for 2008 and, according to chairman Werner Wenning was, from an operational standpoint “the most successful year in Bayer’s long history.” Speaking at the Spring Financial News Conference in Leverkusen, Germany, Wenning explained that the company is benefiting from its alignment toward the life-science businesses HealthCare and CropScience, which are less dependent on global economic development. Group sales rose by 1.6% in 2008 to around 33 million, which, adjusting for currency and portfolio effects, represented a 4.4% increase. While HealthCare and CropScience made healthy contributions to this performance with growth of 6.9% and 13.9% repectively, sales at the MaterialScience business fell by 4.6%. “Our corporate strategy is providing effective even in a difficult environment,” concluded Wenning. UK biotech firm in Novartis collaboration Epistem, a UK biotechnology and research services company, has signed a research and development collaboration with Novartis to identify new drug targets and therapeutics across a variety of disease areas. The collaboration combines Epistem’s stem cell expertise and drug discovery programme, with Novartis’s insights into disease pathways and bioinformatics. Under the terms of the agreement, Novartis will pay Epistem an upfront cash payment of $4 million and will provide research funding for two years. Novartis has an option to exclusively license targets for development of biotherapeutic products in exchange for license fees, milestone payments and royalties. For each product developed from targets licensed under the agreement, Epistem is eligible to receive up to $45 million in milestones. Julian Upton jupton@advanstar.com 1 11 NEWS BRUSSELS REPORT 2 FROM THE EDITOR / NEWS 6 TWITTER 9 GENERICS 13 CALENDAR 14 ON THE MOVE CLICK TO SUBSCRIBE TO PHARM EXEC http://www.pharmexeceurope.com http://social.eyeforpharma.com/taxonomy/term/12/ http://social.eyeforpharma.com/taxonomy/term/12/ http://www.bayer.com http://www.epistem.co.uk http://www.pharmexeceurope.com/europharmexec/newsletter/subscribeNewsletter.jsp
Table of Contents Feed for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 Contents From the Editor Social Media Generics Brussels Report Calendar On the Move Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Contents (Page 1) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 2) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 3) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 4) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - From the Editor (Page 5) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Social Media (Page 6) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Social Media (Page 7) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Social Media (Page 8) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Generics (Page 9) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Generics (Page 10) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Brussels Report (Page 11) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Brussels Report (Page 12) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - Calendar (Page 13) Pharmaceutical Executive Digest Europe - March 11, 2009 - On the Move (Page 14)
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