Pharma round-up

GSK will work with Piri

GSK prepares for heyfever season

With pollen season rolling around in 2010, GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is supporting the Piriteze and Piriton range of tablets and syrups, with a 360-degree, GBP£2.4 million brand spend, providing heavyweight exposure throughout the pollen season.

The activities will build on last year's success where Piriteze was the fastest growing allergy brand in GSL.

The campaign to prevent pollen irritation is going national on british television, where an up-weighted campaign will run from 4 May until the end of June. It will feature an evolution of last year's creative with a focus on 'Hit Hayfever Hard with Max Strength Piriteze', while still supporting the entire Piri Team.

Pharmacy assistants will also be able to increase their understanding about hayfever and allergy with the availability of GSK's latest 'What a Relief' allergy module and over 40 allergy workshops delivering face to face allergy training throughout the season.

Skills shortage for trained pharma staff

According to the UK biopharma industry, there is a significant skills shortage that must be countered with a more concerted co-operation between universities, the industry and the government.

The new report from the South East Universities Biopharma Skills Consortium Project highlights, produced by the University of Reading has found an increasingly urgent problem in skills and recruitment, highlighting issues within higher education, industry and at a Government level.

"The biopharma industry is not a stable market for any type or level of higher education, which makes it hard for universities to plan. Specialist knowledge in high demand by the industry one year may be expendable the next," said Professor Gavin Brooks, Academic Lead for the Biopharma project at the University of Reading. "The industry needs to make a consistent commitment to supporting universities in developing key work-related skills in students, particularly through work placements."

"The view is endorsed by David Fox, director, External Chemistry Partnerships, Pfizer Global R&D. "The need for industry and academia to collaborate has never been greater, if UK-based pharma research is to maintain its global competitiveness. This report provides a timely and valuable framework to inform ongoing discussions on the key themes of future skills need, training and how to build more effective relationships," he added.

Disappointing results for latrepirdine

According to Pfizer, Dimebon and Medivation, an investigational drug called latrepirdine has failed to meet co-primary or secondary efficacy endpoints for Alzheimer's disease compared with placebo in a six-month phase III trial.

The trial, called CONNECTION, involved 598 patients with mild Altziemers, and failed to improve levels of patients' measures of cognition and global function, in comparison to a placebo.

"The results from the CONNECTION study are unexpected, and we are disappointed for the Alzheimer's community," said David Hung, president and chief executive officer of Medivation.

A Pfizer spokesman added that the company would be in a position to determine the next steps for the Dimebon programme once it had further evaluated the data.

Related articles:

Job cuts for GlaxoSmithKline | GSK, Astellas and Novartis warned over drug promotions | The future of GSK | GSK adaptable on H1N1 vaccine | GSK and Isis collaborate on RNA therapeutics | EU Pharma round-up

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