Stats on Pharmacy LI Groups

21. January 2012 member

admin

I often get asked – where can I network as a pharmacist?

Well, other than obvious choices and national groups, here are our stats on some of the pharmacy groups on LinkedIn:

MSL Group

Pharmacy MTMS Group

PharmD/MBA and RPh/MBA Group

Pharmacy Entrepreneurs

As E.M. Forester said, “Only connect!”

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Smart Phone App Use in Clinical Trials & Laws That Apply

1. November 2011 member

admin

I wrote the paper below for a clinical trials research and law class I participated in as a student. The paper was submitted to a writing contest, which I didn’t win; but, now that we have results, my data is released into the wild!

Note: this paper may be somewhat out of date now that HHS/FDA have released guidelines on smart phone apps as medical devices – you were warned! AND–I am NOT a lawyer – this is just an academic paper – do not rely on me for legal stuff – because…I’m not a lawyer!

App forclinicaltrialspaper

View more documents from Erin Albert

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Stop Picking on Pharma: Is BIO Right?

25. October 2011 member

admin

This story from the leader of BIO was all over LinkedIn today – and I have to say, I actually agree with him on many points. And my agreement goes a little something like this:

1. Everyone seems to think ALL prescriptions should cost $4. I’m here to tell you, my friends, that doesn’t exist in most cases. In many cases, it costs between $12-15 just to fill a prescription with the proper equipment–let alone the cost of the actual drug. I won’t say that the retailers started that war–by creating the loss-leader phenomenon–but I’ll let you research it on your own and see what you think.

2. Plants are closing. There are lay-offs. More than the auto industry in pharma? I don’t have the solid numbers in front of me. But when you start hammering on manufacturers, guess what you get? Drug shortages. And while no one wanted adulterated or misbranded drugs, there must be a balance between safety and overkill, because the overkill leads to what we are experiencing right now: drug shortages. Who cares if your prescription costs $4 if you can’t get it filled anywhere because there’s no drug in the first place?!?

3. Drug costs are still (last I saw) 15% of the total health care spending pie, my friends. That leaves a HUGE chunk that is still going to two main places: doctors and hospitals. Don’t get me started on the skyrocketing profits that health insurance companies are making, either. And, let’s also keep in mind that many drugs actually keep people OUT of the hospitals in the first place, which is a good and a much cheaper thing.

4. Drugs are a risky and expensive business. We want safe drugs and thoroughly tested drugs. But having worked in clinical research and pharmacy practice, I can also tell you that there is NO DRUG on the market that is 100% safe and 100% effective. Drugs, much like people, aren’t perfect. Put that on top of the fact that it actually now costs between $800M-$1.2B to get drug to market, and what do you have? A risky recipe for an angry Wall Street investor in a drug company stock.

We need to figure out what is more important: is it innovation? Having low cost drugs available? Making all drugs $4? Curing disease with new drugs? Or, making drugs cheap? One the points above, I will leave you with this. When I was a kid growing up, my dad didn’t call drug companies just “drug companies.” He called them “ethical drug companies.”

Rant over.

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Second Edition of The Medical Science Liaison: An A To Z Guide – Now Available!

23. July 2011 member

admin

The first inklings of our second edition of The Medical Science Liaison are here!

Some of the e formats are available at ebookit.com at this site. Over the next few weeks, we will be rolling out the Kindle, Nook, iBookstore and all the other versions in eformat.

Important note: the second edition of the Guide contains new bonus material and interviews from former MSLs addressing the #1 question asked of our clients: what is next for the MSL? We also have updates on our previous interviewees.

Stay tuned for more electronic versions!

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The Rodney Dangerfield of Health Care

12. July 2011 member

admin

Read this article in Drug Topics this morning about pharmacy. The authors are right. Pharmacists get little to no respect. Question is: what are we then going to do about it to fix the problem?

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Facebook Page…and 2nd Edition of the MSL from A to Z!

26. June 2011 member

admin

We are feverishly working here on the Pharm to bring you the second and updated version of The Medical Science Liaison: An A to Z Guide in digital format, with bonus new materials for our readers! Of course, with that comes the updates to social media. You can now follow us on Facebook, Twitter (@pharmllc), and of course at our LinkedIn group (now nearly 1,200 members) to share your MSL experiences with the world! Please join us, and we hope to see you at our social media sites soon!

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