New Pfizer BD Chief Peck Talks Consumer Health

Checking in from the Burrill Consumer Digital Health conference near San Francisco this week: Pfizer's new head of worldwide business development Kristin Peck (pictured) was on a panel Monday, which piqued our curiosity: Is this a signal from Pfizer (also a sponsor of the show) that it doesn't want to be left off the Pharma 3.0 map?

You might remember that at our PSO conference in February, Ernst & Young's Carolyn Buck-Luce talked up her firm's vision of Pharma 3.0, complete with a Sims-ish schema of a happy, busy neighborhood of interlinked businesses and organizations. Or, as we're all called these days, "stakeholders."

Microsoft was there. Patient organizations, hospitals, doctors, and insurance companies were there. Drug companies were not there.

Which, perhaps, is why Peck was there, on stage in a hotel under the SFO flight path, before the forever-pink-shirted Steve Burrill, talking about the so-called Pharma 3.0 world and Pfizer's place in it. Through a spokeswoman, Peck declined an interview, so we had to gather our first impressions of her from the fifth row of the ballroom.

Here's one: If Pfizer does deals as fast as Peck talks, there will be little rest for those who write about them. Peck also had a bushelful to say on every topic of the panel, which thankfully was structured as a conversation, not a series of PowerPoint talks. A few of her points:

* The health care reform bill wasn't comprehensive. It was just a step to improve Americans' access to health care, but it doesn't address how to reorganize care or reduce costs.

* Reform was only one step, but adding 30-million-plus Americans to the ranks of the insured might be enough of a shock to the system to prod innovation. The big question: Will the millions of new customers force doctors to embrace innovative changes? Doctors are "a large part of the problem" if they're not driving the change, she said. When a top pharma exec accuses another group of being slow to change, you can't help but raise an eyebrow and jot in the notebook "pot-kettle-black." That said, Peck isn't a pharma lifer. She joined Pfizer in 2004 after a consulting career -- and not just on pharma issues. She has real estate and financial services on her resume, too. In other words, a big change from her predecessor, Bill Ringo, who was at Pfizer only a couple years after nearly three decades at Eli Lilly.

* When fellow panelist and Wellpoint chief technology officer Carl Dumont mentioned an online tool available to Wellpoint customers to help them make health-care decisions, Peck said that if patients can't get access to the tool at the point-of-care -- when doctors are advising (or telling) them what kind of procedures they need -- what good will it do?

* Concentric rings of "community" will drive a lot of consumer adoption of health-related technology. When a person receives a disease diagnosis, for example, which community will he or she share it with? Family? Friends? Bosses and workmates? Other health care providers? How about yoga teachers, acupuncturists, and therapists?

We're watching Pfizer keenly post-Wyeth absorption to see how much of its business development shifts from traditional M&A and licensing to the network of providers, tech firms, patient advocates, and others making patient (or, if you prefer, "consumer") connections. One such deal Pfizer recently struck was with Keas, a provider of online care-plan templates.

No doubt we'll continue to have our hands full with Pfizer's takeovers, buyouts, and Phase II license deals ornamented with upfronts and milestones, but Peck's presence at today's conference could mean we'll soon see a lot more diversity among its BD targets.

While You Were Advancing

Despite Saturday's game three hiccup the Fightin' Phils advanced to the NLCS this weekend with a 6-2 win over Milwaukee to cap a 3-1 NLDS victory, taking the sting out of another Iggles loss at the Linc. (Celebrate while you can, Ramsey, St. Louis is tough coming off the bye week ... OK maybe not.)

It's nearly enough to take one's mind off the economic crisis--now spreading even further--and the potential impact that broader financial malady might have on the health care world. For those of you keeping score at home more than two out of three of our respondents agree that the industry universe is shrinking.

While you were dusting off your Beat L.A. signs from 1983 ...

• We get a lot of crazy ideas (support of Philadelphia sports teams can do that to blogger) so we're not normally ones to throw too many stones. But we simply can't get our heads around this 'fast track IPO' proposal described in this Guardian article from last week. Please, anyone, explain it to us. Does this make any sense whatsoever?
• OSI and Genentech report that Tarceva plus Avastin didn't improve survival in advanced non-small cell lung cancer patients better than Tarceva alone, though there was a clear improvement in progression-free survival.
• Genome sequencing is getting cheaper. Harvard's George Church, an adviser to Complete Genomics, the company that this morning announced it could lower the cost of sequencing your As, Ts, Gs and Cs to a cool $5k, called the price "shockingly low." In this economy, George? Call us when we can buy a kit at the Dollar Store.
  
• Biolex this morning bought OctoPlus's 50% commercial rights to the companies' Locteron interferon alfa, which is in Phase II in HCV. Octoplus gets $11mm upfront and up to $138mm in milestones. Meanwhile Biolex also said it raised $60 million in Series D funds in a round led by Clarus Ventures.
  
• Oh yeah. It seems Lilly is buying Imclone. You may have heard about this one. But why do we feel like there's going to be a some sort of Scooby-Doo-esque plot twist at the end of this too-long drama? As of 5a ET still no official word from the companies nor any last minute rubber mask reveals or muttering about getting away with it if it weren't for those meddling kids. Yet. [UPDATE: 7am, and it's official. the deal values Imclone at $6.5bb, or $70/share.]
  

game 2 photo from flickr user nickhall used under a creative commons license.

While You Were Stormin' the Floor

Well there's something you don't see every day: some floor-storming at Newman Arena! Over the weekend with victories against Dartmouth and Harvard (yes, the cheaters) Cornell wrapped up its first Ivy title and NCAA tournament berth in 20 years. Plenty of coverage here. The pundits are predicting a 13- or a 14-seed for the Big Red. In other news ...

• The Times' science correspondent Mark Henderson gets genotyped in the interests of sciencetainment. His weapon of choice, deCODE's deCODEme service, turns out to have its ups and downs, says Henderson, but overall he seems comfortable and satisfied with the process. Here's what a panel of experts say about Henderson's experience, along with some responses from deCODE CEO Kari Stefansson.


• Solvay to Teva: 'Git orffff my lawwnnn!!'


• MGI Pharma gets a big label-expanding approval for Aloxi in post-operative nausea and vomiting. The news capped a trio of positive regulatory announcements for parent Eisai; before the Aloxi news Eisai noted Japanese approval for Vasolan in arterial fibrillation and said FDA had granted its proton-pump inhibitor Aciphex priority review for treating the paper route set.
  
• J&J's Centocor has launched a corporate blog, news of which we first saw on Pharmalot, where Ed fairly notes the new site is a bit bland, and wonders how corporate sites like this affect the "long-running experiment in which communications, marketing and legal teams clash over the extent to which pharma can - and should - engage the rest of the world." CNTO411 joins JNJBTW in the Johnson & Johnson blogging family.

While You Were Settling

Well, it was an interesting weekend: the writers' strike may have been settled, Obama swept (and won a Grammy), and there was an unusual amount of blood spilled around the NHL (Lets Go Flyers!). But what happened in your world?

• First up: AstraZeneca is considering sale of some GI research projects, according to a Swedish newspaper (via Reuters). Perhaps Dagens Industri reads IN VIVO: we reported this news back in November!


• The NYT reviews the options for those of you who want to do a little personal genome spelunking. In other consumer genomics news, deCODE announced on Sunday the launch of a genomic test to identify individuals with a higher risk of prostate cancer.
  
• Newron announced early Monday that it was buying the private CNS-focused biotech Hunter-Fleming, for €8 million in stock plus a potential €17 million in earnouts (also in shares).


• “Generally I am very brave…only today I happen to have a headache.”
  
• Sorry, but we have to be firm on this one: Atonement should not have won best film at the BAFTAs last night (we loved the book, but...). And riddle us this: how does it lose in the 'best British film' category yet win 'best film'?

photo by Flickr user Here in Van Nuys used under a Creative Commons license

While You Were Acquiring

Back when we ran our "who's gonna get bought next" poll on the IN VIVO Blog most of you followed the herd--and chose Biogen Idec. All of you who chose "someone else," take a bow (we know you had Pharmion in mind). Tonight Celgene announced it was buying the cancer-focused biotech firm for $72 per share, for a grand total of $2.9 billion. We'll have more on this on Monday. (Had this deal not happened we may have gone with "While you weren't covering the spread against MIAMI.")

• In other news--does anyone else feel like the world is hurtling toward the 99-cent genome? Forget the $1000 genome, Bionanomatrix is touting its efforts toward a $100 genome (last Monday's Philly Inquirer). And on Friday consumer genomics hit the front pages, as Iceland's deCODE Gentics announced its deCODEme business and Google/Genentech-backed 23andme responded with a 'we're launching our business too' press release late Friday afternoon. Saturday's New York Times has a review of those efforts and more. The Financial Times chimes in as well.


• Barron's isn't confident that prasugrel's data is enough to buoy Lilly, reports Reuters.


• Just when you thought there was nothing more to write about insomnia. The New York Times magazine presents the 'sleep-industrial complex.'