Once upon a time, I worked as a communications consultant for a major pharmaceutical, helping to educate physicians on the company’s drugs, recent trial results, changes in prescribing information, so forth and so on. I met countless physicians paid by the company as speakers and advisors—many of them nice people and consummate professionals, others primadonnas and pompous jerks.

Recently, a group of gay Eli Lilly professionals produced a video in support of gay teens. Writes BNET's Jim Edwards, Lilly was one of few corporations to participate in the recent, far-reaching "It Gets Better" campaign.

Drug manufacturers have been coming to grips with how to leverage social media, from Tweets to blogs, without overstepping the bounds of compliance. Johnson & Johnson and a number of companies have taken the lead, as our Senior Editor for Digital Media Michele Vaccarello Wagner has written.

The drug industry is usually out front in assisting disaster relief, and many manufacturers have already come forth with major donations of money and supplies to Haiti in the aftermath of this week's earthquake.

Abbott will donate $1 million and says it has donated drugs that are already "on the ground" in Haiti. 

Eli Lilly has mapped out its "innovation strategy" going forward . . . The summary from Lilly is here, with the segment on emerging markets pasted below.

Eli Lilly announced that it will be moving 1,000 key employees from its (leased) Faris facilities in Indy to its (owned) downtown corporate center, where it is renovating Building 88 and establishing its Development Center of Excellence, aimed at getting drugs to market faster.

Pfizer has decided to drop two late-stage drug candidates because, according to this AP story, it sees no real market potential for them. That is, it sees no blockbuster potential. And, as the article implies, this is in direct response to the Wyeth purchase and the fact that the company is flush with new compounds to consider and prioritize.

I don’t know about you, but the relentless drum beat of negative news has been getting to me lately.  Every day seems to bring news of some drastic four-figure layoff...er, restructuring, whether in pharma or other industries.

The past few months have seen renewed vigor from FDA's DDMAC (Division of Drug Marketing, Advertising, and Communications) in scrutinizing manufacturers' claims of safety and efficacy. In particular, DDMAC has cracked down on makers and marketers of ADHD medications for their alleged false and misleading claims.

The rumors can be put to rest, as it is revealed that Eli Lilly has agreed to purchase the company for $6.5 billion.

--PWT