Stephanie Sutton was an assistant editor at Pharmaceutical Technology Europe.

Stephanie Sutton

This morning I received a press invitation from Boehringer Ingelheim for the beta launch of its Facebook game, Syrum. The game is the first of its kind to be developed by a pharmaceutical company. Syrum’s 

 is already up for people to view but the game won’t be officially launched until September.

		This isn’t the first game I’ve seen related to the pharmaceutical industry. A few years ago, a vendor of laboratory products released a game as part of a marketing campaign for its new products. The aim of the game was to clear out a laboratory to make room for the new system. I remember myself and other members of the office vigorously competing, but did the game achieve anything? Perhaps not, since none of us can remember the name.

		Syrum aims to be more than a marketing tool. The game hopes to educate people about clinical research and the complexities involved in creating a new medicine. It’s an interesting idea given that the many people outside of the pharmaceutical industry have little knowledge about how medicines are created. As well being a bit of fun for those working in the pharmaceutical industry, the game also has the potential to encourage young people to consider a career in pharmaceutical R&D. Gameplay is to be similar to the popular Facebook game Farmville, where players simulate running a farm. In Syrum, the player will be running a pharmaceutical company and will need to develop drugs and conduct clinical trials. It will also be possible for players to link up with their Facebook friends

		The pharmaceutical industry has been slow to embrace social media, mainly because of concerns of how such activity will be regulated. Now, it seems as if the industry is finally getting to grips with social media. The majority of large pharmaceutical companies operate Twitter feeds, Facebook pages and YouTube channels. For the most part, companies tend to use social media to distribute press announcements or videos. GlaxoSmithKline, for example, has been using its 

 to heavily promote its involvement in the Olympic and Paralympic Games. There are also other innovative ways that companies are making use of Facebook and other social media outlets.

 page (which currently has almost 60,000 ‘likes’) shares videos, noncorporate news about employees (such as charity work) and also some very interesting historical images from the company, such as a picture of a lab technician overseeing penicillin production in 1977.  Suffice to say, the standards are a little different to penicillin production nowadays!

		Pfizer has also experimented with using social media to recruit participants in clinical trials for an overactive bladder drug. However, the initiative was discontinued earlier this year as the company found it difficult to recruit the required numbers. However, this doesn’t necessarily mark the end of patient recruitment via social media. Pfizer has said it will assess the pilot and look to conduct an updated one in the future.

 use Facebook for recruitment purposes, and Sanofi is using its Facebook and YouTube channels to promote awareness of diabetes. Indeed, raising health and disease awareness is a common aim of many social media platforms run by pharmaceutical companies. 

 also uses its Facebook page to raise awareness of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Recently, the company ran a photo competition where it invited submissions of images that reflected the positive fight against COPD.

		Pharmaceutical companies have traditionally seemed like ‘closed entities’ to patients, particularly in Europe where the ban on direct-to-consumer advertising can hinder awareness of treatments and even brand awareness. Social media provides the opportunity for patients to interact with companies and, hopefully, will go some way towards alleviating the negative cogitations that many have towards the industry.

		The launch of Syrum is a new step forward for a company to interact with people outside of the pharmaceutical industry. I’m not one for Facebook games, but I’ll be curious to see what Syrum is like. What about the rest of you?

Articles

This morning I received a press invitation from Boehringer Ingelheim for the beta launch of its Facebook game, Syrum. The game is the first of its kind to be developed by a pharmaceutical company.

Pharma’s First Facebook Game

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the anticancer medicine DepoCyte be recalled from EU countries following the discovery of manufacturing deficiencies at Pacira Pharmaceuticals’ San Diego site.  The deficiencies identified relate to adequate sterility assurance in the manufacturing process of DepoCyte. Production and batch release of the medicine are currently on hold, and new batches will only be manufactured once the deficiencies have been resolved and GMP compliancy confirmed by a reinspection.

 from EMA, there has been no evidence of any microbial contamination of DepoCyte on the market. The recall is being implemented as a precautionary measure in countries where suitable alternatives are available. For countries without therapeutic alternatives, DepoCyte will remain on the market, but with specific recommendations for monitoring patient safety and any signs of infection.

The inspection was conducted jointly by regulators from France and the UK at the DepoCyte manufacturing site in San Diego in July 2012. The EMA’s Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) believes that the lack of sterility assurance poses a theoretical risk of sterility failure. Current data, however, have not suggested that there has been any Negative impact on the finished product.

DepoCyte is a prolonged release liposomal suspension for injection containing cytarabine for the intrathecal treatment of lymphomatous meningitis. The medicine was authorized in the EU in July 2001.

The European Medicines Agency has recommended that the anticancer medicine DepoCyte be recalled from EU countries following the discovery of manufacturing deficiencies at Pacira Pharmaceuticals' San Diego site.

EMA Deals with Manufacturing Deficiencies for Cancer Medicine

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is selling the majority of its ‘classic brands’ in Australia to Aspen Global for approximately £172 million ($271.1 million) in cash. The move is part of GSK’s ongoing strategy to simplify business by selling low-growth and noncore assets in order to focus on priority brands, products and pipeline opportunities.

The divested brands comprise 25 products that have been genericised or that are no longer promoted by the company, including the herpes medicine Valtrex, beta-lactam antibiotic Timentin, and the epilepsy and bipolar drug Lamictal. The brands generated around £83 million ($130.8 million) in total sales in 2011 and £31 million ($48.9 million) in the first half of 2012. In a

, GSK explained that revenues for the products had gradually declined in recent years because of “local market price reductions and generic competition”.

, “Whilst the Products received little promotional focus from GSK, Aspen is confident that it will be able to leverage its proven ability to reinvigorate older brands and the Products’ considerable brand equity in order to enhance the value of the portfolio.” 

The divestment is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of this year, subject to regulatory approvals. 

, GSK divested several over-the-counter brands in select territories to Aspen for approximately $264.7 million. 

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is selling the majority of its 'classic brands' in Australia to Aspen Global for approximately £172 million ($271.1 million) in cash.

GlaxoSmithKline Divests Brands in Australia for $271 Million

AstraZeneca has paid approximately $3.2 billion to extend its diabetes alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), following BMS’s recently completed acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals. The payment, made to Amylin, ensures that AstraZeneca will have an equal share in any profits arising from the diabetes alliance, which is focusing on various drugs from Amylin, AstraZeneca, and BMS.

, the incoporation of Amylin’s glucagon-like peptide-1 (GLP-1) franchise of diabetes drugs will provide a broader platform of potential treatments for diabetes.

AstraZeneca also added that it intends to exercise its option to acquire additional governance rights over key strategic and financial decisions regarding Amylin’s product portfolio. Exercise of this option will entail AstraZeneca paying an additional $135 million to BMS. The collaboration arrangements have been approved by the boards of directors of both BMS and AstraZeneca.

AstraZeneca and BMS entered into a collaboration in 2007 to jointly research, develop, and commercialize potential treatments for Type II diabetes. The expansion of the agreement now covers the codevelopment and marketing of Amylin’s product portfolio, including Byetta (exenatide), Bydureon (exenatide extended-release and exenatide 2 mg powder and solvent for prolonged release), Symlin (pramlintide acetate), and investigational leptin analogue called metreleptin, which is currently under review by FDA.

BMS announced the completed acquisition on Aug. 9, 2012. The company was acquired for $31 per share or an aggregate pruchase price of around $5.3 billion. 

AstraZeneca has paid approximately $3.2 billion to extend its diabetes alliance with Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS), following BMS's recently completed acquisition of Amylin Pharmaceuticals.

AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb Extend Diabetes Alliance

The UK is to invest £8 million ($12.5 million) in a new center that will be dedicated to stem-cell biology and medicine, with the aim of developing new therapeutic approaches to illnesses that currently have no effective treatments. The funding will come from the UK’s Medical Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, two of the country’s largest funders of medical research. 

, stem cells have shown promise in potential treatments for liver disease, diabetes, blindness, spinal cord injury, and neurodegenerative disorders, and can be used to study the mechanisms of human disease. The institute, named The Wellcome Trust–Medical Research Council Cambridge Stem Cell Institute, will bring together research scientists, technology specialists, and doctors, and will principally focus on the areas of pluripotency, haematopoiesis, epithelial tissues, neural, and cardiovascular stem cells. 

“Our aim is to close the knowledge gap and to drive stem-cell research towards clinical applications,” Austin Smith, the director of the institute, said in the statement. “The world-class facilities will attract the best international talent from the fields of stem-cell biology and regenerative medicine to pursue this goal.” 

An 8000 square meter facility is being purpose-built for the institute on the University of Cambridge’s Biomedical Research Campus. The location, close to one of Europe’s largest biotechnology clusters, will provide ample opportunity for industry collaboration. 

The UK is to invest Â£8 million ($12.5 million) in a new center that will be dedicated to stem-cell biology and medicine, with the aim of developing new therapeutic approaches to illnesses that currently have no effective treatments.

UK invests in $12.5-million Stem-Cell Institute

	My daughter has been learning how to ride a bike for the past year.  She’s actually become quite adept at it, and for someone who loves to cycle, I am certainly proud.  But there were certain obstacles to overcome to get to this point.  We started simply with the tricycle – learning to pedal.  Then we switched to a “

” to help learn balance.  Now we are on a two-wheeled bike with training wheels, and slowly beginning to take the training wheels off.  With each step forward, my daughter expressed a certain degree of fear – “will I be able to do this?,” she intimated. Once she made the leap to the next level, she realized how much easier biking can become.  Leaving the training wheels can be scary, but the freedom of two wheels is much better.

	When I speak to customers and prospects about 

, I get much of the same trepidation.  For many years, the concerns of software systems center around the validation of those systems.  After all, if the system fails to work properly, the company becomes liable and any repercussions will most likely not be pretty.

	What is validation, really?  Well, at its core it is ensuring the system does what it is supposed to.  Interestingly enough, software developers validate their software every time a new version is released, when a new build is completed, even when a new line of code is added.  In the Life Sciences space, there is such an importance placed upon the validation of the system, that many companies will focus more on the validation capabilities than the actual functionality of the software.

My daughter has been learning how to ride a bike for the past year. She’s actually become quite adept at it, and for someone who loves to cycle, I am certainly proud. But there were certain obstacles to overcome to get to this point. We started simply with the tricycle – learning to pedal.