FIND IT, FILE IT, FLOG IT: PHARMA’S CRIPPLING ADDICTION AND HOW TO CURE IT
Published 3 Dec. 2015: The addict is in severe need of rehab...
Read FIND IT, FILE IT, FLOG IT over the next few weeks—you’ll be amazed at what you learn
Following on from sharing all the chapters of What Patients Need to Know About: Pharmaceutical Supply Chains, I thought it would be good to do the same with Find It, File It, Flog It: Pharma's Crippling Addiction and How to Cure it.
Here are the two self-satisfied scientists on the front cover. They are contemplating a life of luxury, with wall-to-wall sun, sea, and sangria—all funded by the blockbuster drug in the flask.
Time to teach them the error of their ways, beginning with the Preface and Chapter 1.
Preface
I almost didn’t write this book. My maiden attempt at a book, despite great reviews, was a disappointment in terms of sales. I had been certain the world was hungry to hear the messages within, not just to inform and educate on my speciality subject—strategic management of the supply chain—but also to help catalyze change for the better in the pharmaceutical industry.
As I think back, the important messages were disguised within a relatively high-priced textbook in an industry where the topic of professional management of end-to-end supply chains was as popular as the Conservative Club in Moscow.
Undeterred, I continued to preach the messages at conferences, in professional journals, and through webcasts and podcasts. The presentation I gave at conferences in the United States and European Union was purposefully provocative. I resorted to giving the drug development and commercialization process a funny name, Find It, File It, Flog It, and semiridiculing the notion of scientists discovering blockbuster drugs in the dead of night, surrounded by test tubes, Bunsen burners and other apparatus involved in deep chemistry.
The audiences were always polite. No one challenged me on what I said, although there must have been a lot of skepticism underneath. The only manifestation of that was when I presented at a conference in Tuscany, where a senior Food and Drug Administration (FDA) official had a coughing fit halfway through my presentation and had to leave. She did not return until I had finished.
I toyed with the idea of writing something more direct and explicit than my first attempt, accessible to the “informed patient” as well as those in the industry. Something was stopping me, though. It was one thing shouting at the dark and accepting that no one was interested, but totally different about an industry seemingly so privileged and well established.
Then I read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield.
His view was that creativity is blood, sweat, and tears and a fight against the fear of creating something at which others will pick. It requires a steely determination to keep resisting the knot in your stomach telling you to stop and pursue more tranquil endeavors—to turn up at your desk every morning to write the next installment.
I didn’t stop, and this book is the result. I hope you enjoy it. I certainly enjoyed writing it—in the end.
Chapter 1 About this book
Why should you read this book?
You should read this book if you are an investor, executive, or lawyer in the industry. If you are a professional working in drug research, development, commercial supply, finance, marketing, or all of the other disciplines operating in the sector, this book should find its way onto your shelves. If you are a health-care professional, nurse, doctor, surgeon, medical auxiliary, for example, this book is for you. Most important, if you are a patient, these pages should remain open to you.
For those still with us, there is much in this book for you.
Investors are first on the list because they are likely to benefit most in terms of return on investment and risk reduction, while driving much-needed improvements. Executives will sleep more soundly at night as they face the world with a newfound mission in life. Lawyers will get tons more satisfaction from their fee-earning hours while earning a sizable crust.
Professionals in the industry will realize that they have been marching to the wrong beat and learn what’s needed to readjust their steps. They will become reenergized with prospects and opportunities they do not know exist. Health-care professionals will learn how to bring companies developing pharmaceutical therapies into alignment with their needs, as they finally reconnect with the medicines they prescribe. For patients, the ultimate benefactors of this book, there is so much to discover. The complexities of the pharmaceutical maze will be unearthed, the myths about the cost of drug development and time to market will be debunked, and a new set of insights will put patients, finally, in control of their own destinies as receivers of medicine.
In summary, you are all in for a massive eye-opener—a peek into the inner workings of an industry in crisis, struggling to come to terms with errors of the past and predicaments of the present. You will learn about the industry’s gambling addiction of the early 1980s and discover the debilitating state of this gambler in denial.