Random bits

Pfizer’s 2010 Financial Report for investors covers a number of topics.

Where does Pfizer sell its drugs? The U.S. represented 42.8 percent of Pfizer’s 2010 sales. Western Europe and Scandinavian countries were 24.6 percent. Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, and South Korea were 14.9 percent. Together, these high income countries were 82.3 percent of Pfizer’s 2010 sales.

Pfizer calls the other Asian countries, plus Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe, “emerging markets.” This segment had 17.7 percent of Pfizer sales in 2010, up from 14.9 percent in 2008. In 2010, the “emerging markets” were 72 percent of the sales in Western Europe and Scandinavia, and growing at a faster rate. (more…)

As Chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers, and in various other roles as a close adviser to Obama, Austan Goolsbee was thought of as an influential member of the Obama Administration. What will change now that he is leaving? These are just a few data points from his recent and not so recent past.

In an interview with John Stewart last week, Goolsbee referred to the various bilateral free trade agreements as part of a bipartisan consensus of things to promote U.S. jobs.

In a 2008 flap about Obama’s real views on trade policy, and with regard to NAFTA in particular, Goolsbee was a campaign aide, and was caught assuring Canadian officials that “Mr. Obama’s protectionist stand on the trail was ‘more reflective of political maneuvering than policy.’” http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html (more…)

In 1997, the Orphan Drug Tax Credit was made permanent. In 1998, $80.4 million in credits were claimed on tax returns. By 2008, the claimed credits totaled $450.2 million. This represents a compound growth rate of 17 percent per year. Over the eleven year period, the IRS reported total credits of $2.3355 billion. This is not much when you consider that the orphan tax credit covers 50 percent of the cost of qualifying clinical trials. During the period from January 1, 1997 to December 31, 2008, the FDA granted 1163 orphan designations for which the credit applied. In the same period, the FDA gave marketing approval to 183 indications. On a per-approval basis, that works out to 2335.5/183 = $12.8 million per indication that received FDA marketing approval.

It is also useful to note that there were 6.4 indications for each one receiving marketing approval — a useful statistic regarding the hazard rate for orphan products. (more…)

Today Paul Miano published this report: Cancer: Approval, ownership, market structure, and placement on WHO Model Essential Medicines List, for 100 new molecular entities (NMEs) on the NCI alpha list of cancer drugs and vaccines, KEI Research Note 2011:1.

One of the findings of the report: ownership of cancer drugs sold as a monopoly is concentrated in six countries. And, 85 percent of patented cancer drugs are owned by firms from the US, the UK and Switzerland. (more…)

Before Google Plus, I spent a fair amount of time updating Facebook and twitter. Since Google Plus became available, I initially have found myself focusing less on twitter. I don’t make much use of the G+ circles, but I do like the ability to follow people and comment on their posts, and have people comment on mine. I also like the fact that I am not bound by limits on the number of characters I enter, even though I initially thought this would be a negative.