{"id":1543,"date":"2007-06-07T20:58:20","date_gmt":"2007-06-08T01:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-want-a-new-drug\/"},"modified":"2007-06-07T20:58:20","modified_gmt":"2007-06-08T01:58:20","slug":"i-want-a-new-drug","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-want-a-new-drug","title":{"rendered":"I want a new drug"},"content":{"rendered":"

I enjoy writing the big Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report each June. Sure, it’s not what I imagined I’d be doing when I was a brooding, pretentious idiot in college, but it turns out that there’s plenty of fun to be had in researching and writing these profiles.<\/p>\n

For one thing, there’s the mystery\/police procedural aspect of reading through annual reports and SEC statements and trying to figure out just what certain companies are trying to hide. Maybe it’s awful revenues from a new product (now conveniently reclassified into a group of products, so its figures aren’t broken out), or a diminished product pipeline (“I wonder why [company x] isn’t mentioning any<\/em> of its late-stage projects”), or a quiet reorganization (last year, a company detailed its layoffs and plant closures, but made no statement anywhere<\/em> about how much money it hoped to save in the process). It can take some detective work to figure this stuff out; I’m sure if I’d gotten myself an MBA, I could parse it more easily.<\/p>\n

And for another thing, there’s the drugs.<\/p>\n

I always enjoy reading through these companies’ reports to see about all the neat new therapies, the increased survival rates they bestow, the alleviation of previously uncureable conditions, the lifestyle changes we never thought possible. This, too can take some detective work, because some companies don’t seem to know what they have.<\/p>\n

Por ejemplar: Today, I added UCB Group<\/a> to my Top Biopharmas ranking. The company doesn’t have any biologic-based drugs on the market, but it’s got some in the pipeline, which is better than some of the other companies that I’ve included for years.<\/p>\n

As part of its profile, I needed to list UCB’s best-selling drugs and how they performed last year. And that was how I discovered Nootropil, which posted around $125 million in 2006 sales.<\/p>\n

“Nootropil?” thought I. “I wonder what that’s <\/em>for . . . ?” Since I got a masters degree in liberal arts rather than business, I knew that the ‘noo-‘ root means ‘mind’ in Greek, and that left me intrigued.<\/p>\n

According to UCB’s annual report, Nootropil’s a “cognitive enhancer.” Well, that<\/em> begged more questions than it answered! Fortunately, the Internet has plenty of answers! It’s my<\/em> cognitive enhancer!<\/p>\n

Nootropil is known generically as piracetam and, according to this wiki page<\/a>, it’s “a cerebral function regulating drug which, it is claimed, is able to enhance cognition and memory, slow down brain aging, increase blood flow and oxygen to the brain, aid stroke recovery, and improve Alzheimer’s, Down’s Syndrome, dementia, and dyslexia, among others.” Oh, and it has virtually no side effects.<\/p>\n

Now if only I can convince them to send me some samples!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I enjoy writing the big Top 20 Pharma \/ Top 10 Biopharma report each June. Sure, it’s not what I imagined I’d be doing when I was a brooding, pretentious idiot in college, but it turns out that there’s plenty of fun to be had in researching and writing these profiles. For one thing, there’s … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “I want a new drug”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[27,12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-business","category-pharmaceuticals"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4C7K-oT","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":3038,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/lost-in-the-supermarket-the-flavor-of-night","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":0},"title":"Lost in the Supermarket: The Flavor of Night","author":"Gil","date":"December 9, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"This series of posts about adventures in my local supermarkets began with a single product. This is that product: I suppose the indigo packaging, set off against the sky blue of the other toothpastes, was enough to catch my eye. Who puts toothpaste in a dark box? Wouldn't that be\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Lost in the Supermarket"","block_context":{"text":"Lost in the Supermarket","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/lost-in-the-supermarket"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/farm4.static.flickr.com\/3025\/3095494914_1db31a75f4.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":1071,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/drug-deal-2","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":1},"title":"Drug Deal","author":"Gil","date":"August 9, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"I know this story about the generic release of Plavix requires some knowledge of how the pharmaceutical industry works, but it's a really funny tale of corporate manuevering. The CEO of the generic company (Apotex) gives an interview with the Times in which he goofs on Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2135,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/fall-of-the-mall","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":2},"title":"Fall of the Mall","author":"Gil","date":"July 15, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Yesterday's WSJ had a neat article about the bankruptcy of cheap-chic clothing retailer Steve & Barry's. It explores the practice of malls essentially paying S&B's to open up shop in large, unoccupied spaces. This subsidy tied into the company's business of \"nothing above $9.98\". Sez the Journal: For mall owners,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1014,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/the-uses-of-failure","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":3},"title":"The Uses of Failure","author":"Gil","date":"July 2, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"One of my favorite posts ever is actually a From the Editor column from my magazine about my enjoyment of failure. This week, BW has a neat article called How Failure Breeds Success, on how corporations can learn from their mistakes, particularly with product launches gone awry. Intuit Inc. [.\u2026","rel":"","context":"Similar post","block_context":{"text":"Similar post","link":""},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1442,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/i-wish-i-could-fail-this-well","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":4},"title":"I wish I could fail this well","author":"Gil","date":"April 10, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"There's a bizarre article in the NYTimes today, about the appointment of two editors at Consumer Reports and the mag's upcoming redesign. It begins: As it struggles to recover from a recent flawed article about children\u00c3\u00a2\u00e2\u201a\u00ac\u00e2\u201e\u00a2s car seats, Consumer Reports has named two new editors and announced a redesign. Hmm.\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1870,"url":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/bean-crazy","url_meta":{"origin":1543,"position":5},"title":"Bean Crazy","author":"Gil","date":"January 31, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"My pal Jon-Eric has brought me along to some NY\/NJ Giants football games in the last few years, on occasions when his brother can't use their ticket. The seats his family has are great: lower tier, 47-yard line, just below the overhang of the mezzanine. It's a great view, somewhat\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Big Business"","block_context":{"text":"Big Business","link":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/category\/big-business"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/chimeraobscura.com\/vm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}