The great and the good of planet pharma converged on the Lancaster Hotel in London for, quite simply, the greatest award ceremony in the galaxy (that’s unbiased journalism, right there, folks!) John Pinching reflects on a delightful evening.

During 13 glorious years the Pf Awards has been an increasingly-important fixture on the pharma industry’s hectic calendar. It’s a chance to reflect on the high points of the last 12 months, reward the supreme efforts of pharma’s finest and meet up with vaguely recognisable faces on the dance floor!   This year’s shindig was perhaps the most exciting so far with new categories, inspirational performances and, in Ed Byrne, a compelling host.

The evening got underway with the dulcet Black Country tones of Melanie Hamer who – in her capacity as Events Director for Pf Awards and a Director of Events 4 Healthcare – has overseen every ceremony to date. She was keen to point out how the Pf Awards have evolved in accordance with the demands of the industry, and why they continue to set a benchmark for the most passionate people in the business.

It was my very first Pf Awards and I was most honoured when asked to present the award for best company (the most notoriously unpronounceable organisation in the history of pharma, naturally). The night before I had dreamt that my pilgrimage to the stage was greeted with a chorus of abuse, but in reality the crowd were consummately professional and, as a result, the words ‘Boehringer Ingelheim’ tripped off the tongue effortlessly!

As the names of other winners resonated around the venue, it was very clear from the spectacularly wild celebrations that these endorsements are treasured acknowledgments of a job well done.

Now enjoy our photo album which commits those unforgettable moments to the hallowed pages of the very magazine that gave the awards their name.

Adding a Pf Award to the mantelpiece will be used to inspire several companies as they aim to reach even greater heights. Here’s how one of the winners will be celebrating.

Lundbeck: Working in partnership

The Pf 2013 Joint Working award was won by Jo Livingston, Lundbeck’s Parkinson’s disease specialist.

Jo Livingston worked with partners in primary and secondary care across the Sunderland NHS to develop an integrated care pathway for local people suffering from Parkinson’s disease. An account of the project’s goals and outcomes appeared in an HSP Partnership in Practice supplement in 2012.

A medium-sized pharmaceutical company, Lundbeck specialises in treatments for mental health and neurological disorders. The company has devised a strategy for 2013 that builds on the stability the organisation has achieved and focuses on its three main pillars of strength: delivering excellent results, giving value to customers and being a great place to work. The company’s strategic priorities are complemented by its four operating principles: to be ambitious and take action; to own the future; to be better for less; and to create results together.

In recent years, Lundbeck UK has focused strongly on working in partnership with the NHS to improve the care of people with Alzheimer’s disease and Parkinson’s disease. Jo Livingston’s project is a good example. According to Andrew Jackson, Sales & Marketing Manager for Azilect, there are two reasons for this strategic focus: “The changing NHS and the relationship that the pharmaceutical industry has with it means we need to work jointly, rather than simply promoting drugs. Services for neurological disorders are very varied across the UK, so it’s important that we partner with the NHS to make them better for mutual benefit.”

What made Jo Livingston’s project stand out among the finalists? “It was a true partnership project,” Jackson explains. “She got buy-in from various stakeholders within the NHS and she worked in partnership with them, which is rare. We’ve evolved over time to a model where we’re jointly sharing projects, as opposed to the traditional model where pharma gives money and the NHS goes and does something.”

While joint working is a team achievement, that doesn’t mean good leadership isn’t crucial. Jackson comments: “Clinicians and stakeholders in the NHS are very, very busy, and for the project to actually be seen through and implemented correctly, Jo needed to be the one who was spearheading that and who was driving the meetings, their content and their output, to get towards the end result.”

As well as winning in the Joint Working category, Lundbeck had five other finalists in the Pf Awards 2013. Jackson puts that success in context: “Eighteen months ago Lundbeck restructured to align to the changing needs of the NHS. We developed a team of regional account directors to tailor Lundbeck’s offering to the needs of the local health economy.” That dynamic response to NHS reform has boosted their reputation both with customers and within the industry.

A survey by charity Parkinson’s UK has found that many patients have been affected by public ignorance about the condition.

A stereotyped image of Parkinson’s disease (PD) sufferers as elderly people with tremors has led to 20% of patients being misidentified as drunk.

Half of the patient group have experienced discrimination due to their movement and communication problems.

A famous historical example is the pulp magazine editor Farnsworth Wright, sacked and left to die in poverty despite the perfect clarity of his mind.

Boxer Muhammad Ali and actor Michael J. Fox, among others, have done much to raise public awareness of PD in recent years.

A progressive neurological condition, PD affects over 120,000 people in England, causing both uncontrollable tremors and difficulty with certain types of movement, including facial expressions.

A survey of more than 2,000 people with PD discovered that one in five had been mistaken for being drunk, while one in ten had experienced hostility or verbal abuse because of their condition.

Not surprisingly, over a third said they felt isolated when in public, while over half said they felt afraid. A shocking 10% reported discrimination at work.

One patient, Mark Worsfold, was arrested while watching a road race because his lack of expression (a common PD symptom) struck the police as ‘suspicious’.

Speech, language and facial expressions can also be affected.

Steve Ford, Chief Executive of Parkinson’s UK, said: “Misunderstanding has sentenced people with Parkinson’s to a life of hurtful comments, being refused service in shops and even being shouted at in the street.”

Eisai has formed a major alliance with University College London (UCL) to discover and develop treatments for Alzheimer’s disease and other neurological disorders.

Researchers from the two organisations will work together to identify new drug targets, develop new therapies and evaluate them to proof of concept level.

The alliance – the first such partnership between a pharmaceutical company and a public institution in the UK – reflects the major unmet need in this disease area.

Scientists from UCL and Eisai will form a Therapeutic Innovation Group with a joint steering committee co-chaired by Eisai’s Neuroscience Unit President, Dr Lynn Kramer, and UCL’s Professor Alan Thompson.

UCL has a strong record of research into the causes of neurological diseases, while Eisai has extensive experience of developing and gaining regulatory approval for neurological drugs.

Eisai and UCL will share royalties on medicines developed through the partnership, and the university will also receive milestones payments.

Dr Lynn Kramer commented: “Neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s disease represent a significant unmet medical need due to lack of effective treatments that can prevent disease progression.

“In this unique collaboration, we hope our complementary expertise will identify potential new drug targets that we can bring to market and make available to patients that need it the most.”

“This is a genuinely new way of collaborating on pharmaceutical research for UCL, with exciting implications for research with the potential to lead to step changes in the treatment of diseases which affect the nervous system,” said Professor Sir John Tooke, UCL’s Vice Provost for Health.

The Japanese pharma company’s relationship with UCL – ranked among the world’s leading universities – goes back 20 years with shared research into neurodegenerative diseases.

The generic version of Novartis’ Exelon (rivastigmine) for the treatment of patients with dementia and Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease has been released in the UK.

Teva’s rivastigmine is indicated for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderately severe Alzheimer’s dementia and symptomatic treatment of mild to moderately severe dementia in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

Kim Innes, Commercial Director at Teva, said the launch of the medication would help save the NHS £9bn each year through its continued used of generic alternatives.

“So far this year, we’ve launched 20 new products, including ten day-one patent expiries, which is good for pharmacy because new products provide opportunities for increasing margins and keeping costs down,” she said.

Charity Alzheimer’s Research UK estimates that treating dementia in the UK costs around £23bn each year.

Dependence on local control for care of neurological conditions has resulted in poorer outcomes than if there were a nationally-led strategy, according to MPs.

A report by the Public Accounts Committee contrasts the “poorly co-ordinated” and inconsistent care of conditions such as Parkinson’s disease with the impact of national targets for cancer and stroke care.

An estimated two million people in the UK have a neurological condition, the report said, but the quality of care provided varies significantly between locations.

The National Service Framework (NSF) for long-term conditions, published in 2005, contained 11 quality indicators. However, there was no national baseline for services or outcomes and no monitoring of progress.

This contrasts with the NSFs for cancer and stroke treatment, which were nationally led to drive improvements.

The report noted that despite their complex needs, spending on social services for people with neurological conditions has not increased since 2006 and healthcare provision remains below the quality requirements set out in the NSF.

This failure is reflected by a 32% increase in emergency admissions and an increase in the rate of readmissions within 28 days from 11.2% to 14%.

Finally, the report observed that only 22% of people with Parkinson’s disease, multiple sclerosis or motor neurone disease have a personal care plan.

It recommended the appointment of a national clinical lead for neurology.

Committee chair Margaret Hodge MP said that for people with neurological conditions “individual care is often poorly co-ordinated and the quality of services received depends on where you live. Some areas simply don’t have enough expertise, both in hospitals and in the community.

“For this clinical area, the department left the implementation to local health commissioners but gave them no leadership at all. It set no baselines and failed to monitor progress. The present government needs to understand what went wrong here for the future.”

Novartis Europharm has withdrawn its application to extend the therapeutic indications of Exelon and Prometax from the EMA.

The company had hoped to extend the use of the transdermal patches for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderately severe dementia in patients with idiopathic Parkinson’s disease.

However, in its official letter to the EMA, Novartis said it was unable to provide the data required within the timeframe allowed.

Exelon was first authorised for use in the EU on 12 May 1998. Its duplicate Prometax was first authorised in December that year.

They are both currently indicated for the symptomatic treatment of mild to moderately severe Alzheimer’s dementia.

The EMA says that both medicines continue to be authorised in the currently approved indication, and that the withdrawal does not prejudice the possibility of a company making a new application at a later stage.

Belgian biopharma company UCB has predicted that patent expiry will strongly affect its European growth in 2012.

While UCB’s blockbuster epilepsy drug Keppra faced little generic competition in Europe following its patent expiry in 2011, the company predicts a 50% sales fall for the product in 2012.

However, the company’s CEO said its focus on severe diseases of the immune system and CNS has helped to insulate it against economic austerity.

UCB saw its revenues rise by 1% to €3.25bn in 2011, but predicts a fall of nearly 5% to €3.1bn in 2012.

According to a UCB spokesman, Keppra faces competition from more than 100 generic substitutes in 2012, and its European sales can be expected to fall by 50%.

Delays in the launch of generic alternatives protected Keppra in 2011, when its global sales increased by 3% despite its patent expiry.

UCB’s CEO, Roch Doliveux, said that its commitment to therapy areas such as epilepsy and immunology had shielded the company from the impact of European austerity: “We still have the means in Europe for many years to come to pay for severe healthcare issues, and that’s what we’re addressing.”

Last year, UCB benefited from increased sales of three products: Vimpat for epilepsy, Neupro for Parkinson’s disease and restless legs syndrome, and Cimzia for Crohn’s disease and rheumatoid arthritis (RA).

Doliveux also argued that value-based pricing – due to be adopted by the NHS in 2014 – is not a good model to support innovation. He argued that the current PPRS system is “a very robust system that a lot of countries have tried to copy, and PPRS works well.”

Among non-UK companies, UCB is the leading non-British investor in UK pharmaceutical R&D.