Main Subject - Business

This morning, as I emerged blinking from Chancery Lane station on my way to work, I was confronted by a young lady sporting a nylon tunic emblazoned with the words ‘Every Child’ and a fat clipboard full of Direct Debit forms. As I approach

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

ed, she began to play out some ridiculous dumb show of desperation worthy of the sad clown in a cut-price circus and entreating myself and the guy walking immediately ahead of me to “Pleeeeeease stop and talk to me!” in pathetic, ‘can-I-ha

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

ve-a-pony-Daddy?’ tones. In response to her transparent and two dimensional plea, I fixed on my best chugger-proof thousand yard stare (they can’t catch your eye if you look through them!) and trundled blithely on. My fellow pedestrian, ho

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

wever, felt no such need for reserve in his response, calling out loudly “there’s a good reason why no-one’s talking to you, love, it’s because you’re a f***ing parasite!”

A crass and imbalanced response to a kind-hearted soul trying to m

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

ake a difference, you might say; a callous dismissal of the efforts of a good, honest individual to make a difference to the cruel world we live in? Not so, say I! Let us take a moment to examine the economics of this new, self-made indust

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

ry sector and see if there might actually be some mileage in this young man’s claim.

Some years ago, whilst I was still at university supplementing my student by loan working in a bar up to five nights a week and living in a shared house,

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

one of my then housemates came home announcing that she had found ‘an amazing job’ which allowed her to work just one day a week and bring home more money than my five bar shifts used to earn. Intrigued, I asked for more details of this w

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

nder job and sat back as my housemate launched into a breathless account of how she and her fearless new colleagues were out to save the world. “Firstly, she gasped, in a froth of self-congratulatory altruism, “the best thing about the job

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

is that it’s working for charity!” So far, so good I thought; charity is good. “Basically, you go out with a team of people and you talk to people in the street and you ask them to sign up to donate money for your charity.” “Which charity

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

is this?” I asked. “Oh, it could be a different charity every week, we work through an agency” she replied. At this point, alarm bells began to ring.

To cut a long story short, it transpired that my housemate was being paid around ?9.50

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

per hour to stand in the street, harassing the general public into surrendering their direct debit details and donate to charity making, over a ten hour shift a daily total of ?95, which was a pretty damn good take home for a days work for

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

a 20 year old student. Add to that the fact that employment agencies of any sort levy a charge on top of this daily wage to the employer, in this case the charity, which can easily be equal to or even in excess of the actual wages paid to

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

the employee. Lets be generous in this case and assume that the agency in question charges 30% on top of wage charges. That leaves a daily cost to the charity in question of ?123.50. After a rushed mental calculation, I exclaimed to my ho

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

usemate “wow, you must have to work really hard to pay for yourself; how many are you expected to sign up in a day?” “One” she replied, “at least while we’re new to the job, later on you’re expected to be better at it, the really good ones

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

get four or five in a day!”. Four and five in a day sounds like a pretty low rate considering the cost; “how much are these four or five people donating?”; “about ?3.50 a month on average”.

I was gobsmacked! I couldn’t help it, the calcul

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ator came out.

“I hate to piss on your parade,” I said, five minutes later “but at one signee per day for ?3.50 a month, you’d need to work for 35 days straight, or seven full working weeks to bring in enough revenue from initial payments

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

to pay your wages for a single day. To put it another way, the one person that you sign up today has to maintain this direct debit for just shy of three years before what you did today becomes profitable for the charity that hired you. I

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

fail to see how this is a good thing you are doing.”

Two days later, my housemate returns from a second shift ‘chugging’, “we are raising awareness” she says, “increasing the public brand visibility of the charities we work for”. Sure you

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

are, you’re raising my awareness of the fact that people in nylon tunics are to be avoided; you’re raising my awareness of the depths to which unscrupulous agencies and cash strapped students will stoop; you’re raising my awareness of exa

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

ctly how much voluntarily donated cash intended for charity use gets siphoned off into the pockets of middlemen and smooth talkers. I fail to see how this is a good thing!

If you really want to donate to a charity, do it via their website

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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This fact is your biggest opportunity if you have the courage to look long and hard at your own business model and marketing strategy. Rest assured that most of your competitive set lacks the fortitude for such assessment - except, of course, the new market leader who rises to everyone’s surprise. Upsetting the apple cart is the recipe for success. Keeping to the old model is the recipe that the market leader hopes you salute in dead earnest.

If it's been awhile since you've had to pound the pavement looking for a new job, you should first develop a strategy. This kind of preparation work will insure that you find the job most suited to your abilities and desires.

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Main Subject - For the Love of Charity! The Economics of Parasitism

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