MUR Online Pharmaceutical Industry Award for Pfizer Limited

Following the inaugural annual general meeting of our parent company: Pharmangelist Limited (link ). It was resolved to create an MUROnline Pharmaceutical Industry Award and to award the first of many, we hope, to Pfizer Limited (link ).

Why Pfizer?

I will hereby outline the reasons why we have decided to give this award to Pfizer.

In October 2007, I was alarmed by the decision by Pfizer to withdraw Exubera because 'too few patients were using it'. I was so moved to the extent that I wrote a blog about it on Iforg Limited webblog (Why withdraw Exubera? ). I challenged the pharmaceutical industry to be realistic about the potential take-up of their products and price the products appropriately. I concluded that 'this threat of withdrawal or intention to withdraw is no good to anyone'. One of the reasons why this issue excited my passion was because as a pharmacist who is at the fore front of service delivery, I have a duty to supply effective medication to my patients and advise them on how to use it appropriately. Having to withdraw a medication on the basis that not enough people was using it (even though it might be beneficial to the patient in front of me), does not sit very well with me. Ultimately pharmaceutical companies need to take more responsibility here. We, at MUR Online, have noticed a significant strategy shift from Pfizer and we wish to use this award to recognise Pfizer for what they are doing.

Evidence 1:

Pfizer has decided at the highest level in the organisation, to take us on a medicines journey and in so doing, recognising the significant role a pharmacist has to play delivering quality service for the NHS. The face of the NHS is changing and our profession has been tasked to respond to that challenge. MUROnline takes that challenge seriously and is the driving force for what we are doing. Pfizer calls it Healthy Partnership and there are three key underpinning principles:

Supporting professional development
Enhancing the patient experience
Delivering commercial value.

Supporting professional development
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Pfizer is supporting pharmacists in the delivery of quality MURs by providing resources for the running of workshops and seminars. We believe there has been a lot of thought put into these events and we note that these are equipping Pharmacists in the delivery of quality MURs (link ). We will encourage a lot more companies to get involved and is a recognition that pharmacist have a significant role to play as front line healthcare professionals

Enhancing the patient experience
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Pfizer want to improve outcome for patients through patient focussed programs. They plan to do this using a range of patient focussed initiatives. They have produced an informative guide to patients entitled 'The simple facts about your medicine' and it take the patient on a medicines journey from discovery to clinical trials, supply chain right and through to the pharmacist who hands out the medicine. The leaflet, produced in conjunction with Pfizer life (link ), is available at your nearest pharmacy.

Delivering Commercial Value
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Pfizer has also embarked on a number of initiatives to deliver commercial value for pharmacy businessess. This is in recognition of the commercial aspects of pharmacy business which underpins its viability.

Evidence 2:

Preserving the integrity of the supply chain: Medicines are very important and it is almost impossible to imagine a world without medicines. Pharmacists are important in preserving the quality of medicines we supply to our patients where ever we are working. We have noted that Pfizer is spending a lot of money to alert the wider public to the dangers of drug counterfeiting. There is a national campaign supported by Pfizer to alert people to this problem.

The problem is real and recent news article about conviction of certain individuals are a pointer to this (link1 , link2 ). More information about the Pfizer campaign is available on www.realdanger.co.uk . The advise is clear: Source your medication from pharmacies and acredited online outlets. Beware of illegal websites and unsolicited e-mails purpoting to sell cheap prescription drugs. Pfizer's own statistics suggest that 40% of UK men interviewed have admitted to purchasing an erectile dysfunction medicine via the internet. MUROnline certainly hope they are using reputable online pharmacy oulets.

Evidence 3:

Something important happened recently when NICE reversed its decision and approved Pfizer's kidney cancer drug, Sutent (link ) for use in the NHS. This was widely reported as a U-turn by NICE in the national newspapers but MUR Online believe that the U-turn would have been impossible without a little help from Pfizer. We welcome the addition of this new class of medicines in the treatment of what amounts to a very serious series of conditions. Sutent, for the record, is licensed for the treatment of (1) Advanced kidney cancer and (2) A cancer of the digestive (gastrointestinal) system called gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). SUTENT is used when the medicine Gleevec^® (imatinib mesylate) does not stop the cancer from growing. It may also be used when you cannot take Gleevec. We will also note that the rival medicines are still not recommended.

Pfizer decided, against all odds, to reduce the cost of the drug by offering to pay for the first cycle of treatment. If it seems to be working, the NHS will then pay. This actually echoes the imagination in pricing which I was calling for on my blog (link ). We cannot move away from the reality that the NHS has a finite financial resources. And tough decisions are being made at the highest level to manage these finite resources. Any help from the industry is always welcomed.

Evidence 4:

Medicines Portfolio: Innovation in Medicines.

Our last evidence for presenting Pfizer with this award is the strenght of their portfolio.

VIAGRA (link )
LIPITOR (link )
CELEBREX (link )
LYRICA (link )
SPIRIVA (link )
LIPITOR (link )

The above are a few of their primary care brands, some of which were first in its class.

On behalf of the MUROnline team, we congratulate Pfizer for this award and is our unique way of recognising support for our profession by the pharmaceutical industry.