Departing Words: Merck’s Ken Frazier Cautions Against Profit Maximization
Pharma CEOs must balance optimizing access and profitability, former Merck CEO and soon-to-be ex executive chairman of the company said. Frazier says health care industry must come to table and admit the “system ain’t working,” talks about the need to protect democracy, in a sweeping interview at the STAT Summit.
....from the Citeline archives, via Sarah Karlin-Smith
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In a court filing reported yesterday by Bloomberg Law reporter Celine Castronuovo, Amgen argues it will suffer “concrete harm” unless a federal judge quickly enjoins Colorado’s drug pricing board from moving forward with a payment cap for Enbrel.
Like nearly all content in healthcare today, Amgen's storyline starts and sticks with the Standard Model, the cut-and-paste messaging that now sits at the extreme end of monotonous repetition.
To wit:
"Innovative medicines have enhanced and extended the lives of countless Coloradans. Recognizing the enormous investment of time and money needed to discover and develop these novel treatments, Congress
rewarded those who bring new medicines to market with a period of patent exclusivity and pricing discretion.
As numerous scholars have observed, the economic incentives provided by the federal patent system are crucial to Congress’s objective of promoting pharmaceutical research and development.
One such medicine, Amgen’s pioneering drug ENBREL® provides life-changing relief to thousands of Coloradans who suffer from arthritis and other autoimmune diseases. Enbrel redefined the clinical course of moderate to severe rheumatoid arthritis...."
etc., etc., etc., etc.
All of which may be technically true, as "the scholars have observed", but if the objective for Amgen is an argument that persuades, the #StandardModel stopped working long ago.
It also doesn't help when the 20 members of the Colorado drug pricing board and its advisory council come home from work and watch the local news, where the commercial breaks will be flooded with drug promotion, part of the media buy that comes from the industry spending $30 billion/year on DTC advertising.
These things are connected.
In a conversation with Bill Boulding, Dean of Duke University - The Fuqua School of Business around the same time as his interview with STAT, Frazier said one of the role's of business was in collaborating with government to reinvent the country.
“The role of the private sector in the United States in helping to reinvent this country, over, and over, and over again, is important,” he said. “I think business has the talent, it has the resources, it has the capabilities of helping to change our country.”
It's time to sweep the old concepts out of the saddle.
The faster the drug market learns how to connect things differently, to 'see, say, sell and sustain' strategy at a system level, the faster it can start creating a different future for itself.
#QuentinTarantino