Pharma Strategy Blog reaches 900 blog post milestone

Posted on August 2, 2011 by Daedalus

It takes desire, discipline and determination to blog regularly, and as a result many blogs fall by the wayside over time. However, Sally Church has been writing a blog on oncology, hematology, cancer science & biology, clinical trials and new product development for the past five years. It continues to go from strength to strength thanks to Sally’s passion for the area.

Sally recently announced on Pharma Strategy Blog that she had reached the 900 blog post milestone. In recognition of this, Sally took the time to answer the follow questions:

Why do you blog?
How do you decide what to write about?
What makes a good blog post?
Looking back on 900 posts – which posts are most memorable?
What are your future goals for Pharma Strategy Blog?

You can find out Sally’s answers in the following video:

Biotech Marketing, Licensing & Business Development in action

Posted on July 1, 2011 by Daedalus

Pieter Droppert has prepared a short (2 minute) video review of BIO 2011, in which he notes that one of the major themes of the meeting was facilitating partnering, licensing & business development discussions between pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies.

Astra Zeneca tweeted that they had 500 partnering discussions planned, a number that is perhaps not so surprising in light of their pipeline and patent cliff over the next few years.

Another major focus of BIO was the marketing of biotechnology regions that takes place in the exhibit hall and at satellite events. Pieter has written in more detail on Biotech Strategy Blog about the session on innovation he attended, networking opportunities and the face of biotech social media.

His not too serious BIO 2011 video, that you can watch below, captures what he thought of the meeting as a first-time attendee.

We wish our Canadian clients a Happy Canada Day today and our United States clients an enjoyable Independence Day weekend. Icarus Consultants will be open for business again on Tuesday, July 5th.

Sally Church attends Beating Retreat while at EHA 2011 in London

Posted on June 14, 2011 by Daedalus

There is an apocryphal story that Sally consults by day and blogs by night on Pharma Strategy Blog.

There is indeed usually little downtime on the quest for science at the many conferences such as AACR, EAU, AUA, ASCO, EHA, ESMO, SABCS, ASH, that she attends.

Beating the Retreat June 2011 London 300x225 Sally Church attends Beating Retreat while at EHA 2011 in London However, while in London for the annual Congress of the European Hematology Association (EHA), Sally was fortunate to attend “Beating Retreat,” a ceremony that dates back to 16th century England.

On two summer evenings in June it is performed on Horseguards Parade in central London.

This year it featured the Massed Bands and Corps of Drums of the Household Division, supported by the Royal Horse Artillery and the United States Army Europe Band and Chorus. Proceeds from the sale of tickets go to soldier’s charities.

At the ceremony Sally attended, HRH Prince Philip, Duke of Edinburgh took the salute on the eve of his 90^th birthday. A truly memorable occasion.

Despite its pomp and circumstances the event reminded everyone of the sacrifices of those who serve their country. You can watch the video below (taken on a handheld flip camera, so apologies for the quality) of “I’m coming home” that was specially written in honor of those who did not return from Afghanistan.

ASCO 2011 Annual Meeting Conference Coverage

Posted on June 3, 2011 by Daedalus

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog is aggregating the tweets from the 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. Twitter hashtag #ASCO11.

If you are unable to attend, you can follow what’s happening on Pharma Strategy Blog.

In Sally’s video preview of ASCO 2011, she talks about ovarian cancer, metastatic melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma. The video is well worth watching. We especially like the 20 second animated intro sequence! Sally will be writing from ASCO on Pharma Strategy Blog and on twitter as @MaverickNY.

Pieter Droppert has also published an ASCO preview on Biotech Strategy Blog focused on prostate cancer. He is excited about data that will be presented on the use of circulating tumor cells (CTC) as a biomarker. Pieter will be tweeting from ASCO as @3NT.

If you are attending ASCO we look forward to meeting you at what is set to be an exciting conference, otherwise do follow the action on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Using Pharma Social Media for #ASCO11 Conference Coverage

Posted on June 1, 2011 by Daedalus

I tweet therefore I am! Sally Church who has a lot of experience in pharma social media, was recently featured in the May 31st bulletin of the National Cancer Institute (NCI).

In an excellent article by Edward Winstead, entitled “Scientific Meetings through the Lens of Twitter”, Sally is quoted on how Twitter has been used to share information at the recent 2011 annual meetings of the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and American Urological Association (AUA).

With multiple scientific sessions taking place in parallel at conferences, live-tweets from participants do allow you to follow what is happening elsewhere, and indeed may stimulate you to change session (to a more interesting one).

If you can’t be present at a meeting, following the conference on twitter, gives you insight into some of the key messages. However, there’s only so much that can be said in 140 characters, so tweets are not likely to replace more in-depth blog posts. Also, like listening in on a conversation, what is tweeted cannot necessarily be relied upon.

Sally will be live-tweeting from the forthcoming 2011 annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology. She will also be aggregating, on Pharma Strategy Blog, the tweets of others who are using the hashtag #ASCO11. ”Check it out!” as Sally would say.

Preview of ASCO 2011 Annual Meeting #ASCO11

Posted on May 31, 2011 by Daedalus

Photo Credit: Nimesh Madhaven

This Friday sees the start of the annual meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) in Chicago. The meeting runs from June 3-7.

On Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church shares her thoughts on what she expects to be hot news at ASCO this year.

In her ASCO11 video preview Sally discusses clinical trial presentations in ovarian cancer, metastatic melanoma and soft tissue sarcoma. You can watch Sally’s video below and read more on Pharma Strategy Blog.

Icarus Consultants will be attending ASCO (along with 30,000 others), so if you are interested in meeting up, please contact us.

Memorial Day is a time for Remembrance

Posted on May 30, 2011 by Daedalus

Memorial Day is a time for remembrance, something that we do far too little of in today’s hectic, ‘always-on’ world.

Officially proclaimed on 5 May 1868 following the United States Civil War, it’s purpose was to come together to honor those who gave their all for their country.

Some time today we should all step back and have a quiet moment of reflection. Icarus Consultants will be open for business tomorrow.

Impact of Video on Pharma Marketing Strategy

Posted on May 28, 2011 by Daedalus

Have you noticed that when you search for something on the web, the results now frequently contain videos to watch?

We at Icarus Consultants believe this trend towards video based information is set to continue.

It is perhaps not surprising given that anyone can easily shoot video on a home computer or iphone. Storytelling using video and audio is simply more engaging than just reading.

I don’t think it will be too long before we see more pharma/biotech companies with their own channels on YouTube and other social media platforms. The advantage of video is that once it has been uploaded to YouTube or Vimeo, it can easily be embedded or shared on other sites such as Facebook.

As Sally Church noted on Pharma Strategy Blog when discussing Antibody Drug Conjugates, video lends itself well to physician education and discussing complex mechanisms of action. However, she notes that pharma and biotech companies still “have a long way to go yet in terms of how they can help improve learning about the science behind new cancer treatments.”

To enhance our video capabilities, Pieter Droppert recently spent 5 days on the Columbia Journalism School Digital Media Boot Camp.

He wrote a daily report about his experiences on Biotech Strategy Blog.

The boot camp took participants through the production of a video project from camera technique, composition, framing, lighting to shooting video and editing in Final Cut Pro.

You can watch Pieter’s course project on the smoking ban in New York City parks below:

AUA 2011 Annual Meeting Prostate Cancer Highlights

Posted on May 18, 2011 by Daedalus

The 2011 annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) ended in Washington DC today.

Some of the highlights of the meeting were written about on Pharma Strategy Blog and Biotech Strategy Blog, these include:

PIVOT (Prostate Cancer Intervention versus Observation Study)

The data from this study was presented in Tuesday’s plenary session by Dr Tim Wilt, a Professor at the University of Minnesota, and was to many attendees, the highlight of the meeting.

The trial results showed for the first time that radical prostatectomy (RP) is no better than watchful waiting in men with early stage prostate cancer using evidence based medicine.

This groundbreaking research is likely to have a major impact on urology practice in the United States.

Pieter Droppert wrote about the PIVOT results on Biotech Strategy Blog. Scott Hensley on NPR’s Health Blog, “Shots” references Pieter’s post, and has an interview with Dr Wilt that is also well worth reading.

Also presented at AUA in Tuesday’s plenary session were the results from:

Denosumab (Xgeva®) 147 phase III trial

This study looked at castrate resistant prostate cancer patients at high risk of development of bone metastasis.

Sally Church on Pharma Strategy Blog discusses the results presented by Dr Matthew Smith at AUA. Denosumab was shown to increase bone metastasis-free survival and delayed time to first bone metastasis, but did not increase overall survival (OS).

Both Sally Church and Pieter Droppert also wrote additional blog posts from the meeting. On Biotech Strategy Blog, Pieter wrote about data that showed:

European men with a biochemical recurrence have a lower risk of prostate cancer survival compared to those in the United States

He also wrote about:

New Prostate Cancer products in development beyond the androgen axis

Some of the new products mentioned in Pieter’s post include alpharadin, XL-184 (cabozantinib), Prostvac-VF, BPX-101 and ipilimumab. You can read more on Biotech Strategy Blog.

Meanwhile on Pharma Strategy Blog, Sally Church continued one of her themes of how social media is impacting medical conferences by reviewing:

How AUA have embraced Social Media in 2011

Sally also recorded a video blog post (vlog) from AUA that highlighted some of the exciting developments in basic biology and how this may lead to new Prostate Cancer treatments in the future. Click here to watch this.

If you were unable to attend the meeting, Sally aggregated the #AUA2011 tweets.

Selecting what to write about on a blog is subjective, so the above posts are not intended to provide comprehensive meeting or conference coverage, only a few highlights of what was presented at the highly informative and educational AUA annual meeting.

If you are interested in a more comprehensive report on the Prostate Cancer Market and the emerging new products in development, please do not hesitate to contact us.

Icarus Consultants to attend AUA in Washington DC #AUA2011

Posted on May 9, 2011 by Daedalus

Washington DC Monument 225x300 Icarus Consultants to attend AUA in Washington DC #AUA2011 This Friday sees the start of the 2011 annual meeting of the American Urological Association (AUA) in Washington, DC. The meeting runs from May 14-19.

We expect the recent FDA approval of abiraterone acetate (Zytiga®) from Ortho Biotech (JNJ) to be hot news at the meeting as urologists seek to learn more about it’s use.

Icarus Consultants will be in our Nation’s Capital for AUA, so should you be interested in meeting up, please contact us.