Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008 - (Page 18)

18 Executive Profile January 2008 Pharmaceutical Executive Europe The Pharmacist’s Friend Gary Noon talks to Pharm Exec Europe about his Big Pharma experience, his presidency of IMS (US) and his new role in bringing the pharmacist to the forefront of industry–patient equation. is the third new year Gary Noon has greeted as CEO of drug authentication company Aegate, and it could be his busiest yet. This year will not only see the company promote the take-up of its ‘authentication at the point of dispensing’ technology further across Europe (having established initial systems in Belgium and Greece) but also, hopefully, take its first steps into the colossal US market. Indeed, Noon flies out to California this month to present again (after a successful introduction in December last year) to the California Board of Pharmacy. California has mandated that all prescription drug packaging must be marked with unique serial numbers by 1 January 2009. The State requires that an electronic pedigree for pharmaceutical packages be created by the manufacturer then maintained and communicated throughout the supply chain to the retail level. The timing of this legislation could be good for Aegate. After a concentrated period of software and database development by its parent company, PA Consulting, Aegate (which launched in 2003) began rolling out its authentication service in Belgium in October 2006. Just over a year later, its service was available to 70% of Belgian pharmacists (and was endorsed by the Belgian pharmaceutical association, the APB). Roll-out in Greece followed (the service is now available to 60% of Greek pharmacies), and operations in Italy are currently being established. Negotiations with Turkey — where legislation regarding mass serialisation will be announced later this year — are also well under way. It seems that in whichever country mass serialisation is becoming a requirement, Aegate is soon to make its presence felt. 2008 The pharmacist is treated as just a distribution point rather than as a way to value-add a brand. Gary Noon Learning curves Gary Noon’s focus may have been squarely on Europe during the first couple of years of his tenure as Aegate CEO, but he is no stranger to the US. From 2000 to 2004, he was president of IMS North America, a role he took after spending nearly twenty years working in industry for Big Pharma companies, such as Squibb (then Bristol Myers Squibb) and Wellcome (then GSK). His first Stateside position was as part of Warner Lambert’s global marketing group, during the huge growth period fuelled by Lipitor. Noon was part of the team overseeing Warner’s merger with American Home Products (AHP); he left for IMS just after AHP’s takeover by Pfizer. “I had this great ability to join companies just before they’re taken over,” he says. The move to the US proved to be highly inspirational. “Wellcome, with their charitable background, was a very different company to most major pharmaceutical companies; they produced some wonderful products but they were still learning how to effectively launch them in an increasingly competitive market. Most companies had already learnt how important it was to involve marketing in the early stages of a drug development to ensure that their label allowed it to be marketed successfully.” Not surprisingly, Noon’s subsequent move to IMS was also highly educational. “It was fascinating because you see everybody’s data,” he says. “You can actually look at things that do work and things that don’t work… A lot of people misunderstand the market structure of the industry when they describe it as highly fragmented. If you think about the sector from the customer point of view, the pharmaceutical market is a series of distinct markets, which are identified by the therapeutic categories that are used within them and the specialists that lead them. If, for example, you dominate the promotional and research space of gastroenterology, whilst you dominate the therapeutic categories that serve this sector, this market is not highly fragmented. Looking across several therapeutic categories you can see the impact of players that have dominated particular markets.” Pharmacy focus After leaving IMS, armed with new insights on the industry, Noon spent a year working in biotech in California before returning to the UK to sign on for Aegate. The service the company was in the process of developing appealed to his sense of a changing industry — the growing problems of counterfeit drugs, worsening patient http://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/frontEnd/main.php?idSeccion=779 http://www.pharmaceuticalcommerce.com/frontEnd/main.php?idSeccion=779

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008
Contents
From the Editor
News and Analysis
Calendar
Corporate Strategy: Walking the Line
Executive Profile: The Pharmacist’s Friend
Q&A: An End to Drug Counterfeiting
Healthcare Cost Assessment: Ready to Make NICE?
Pricing and Reimbursement: Through the Reimbursement Barriers
Generics: India Inc.
The Mix: New Models of Excellence
Last Word: Mid-size Matters

Pharmaceutical Executive Europe - January 2008