PhRMA’s annual meeting in Washington D.C. today was not marked by the excesses attributed to the industry. Long gone are the days of the Breakers. It was professional, yet restrained.
This meeting stands in stark contrast to the Generic Pharmaceutical Association (GPhA) annual meeting earlier this month at a ritzy golf resort in Arizona (pictured). Generic drug makers who flew in on private jets rubbed elbows with Congresswomen and staffers. Men from the Indian generics firms were gleefully socialized wit young attractive women who didn’t seem to know much about pharmaceuticals.
Pharma is a victim of its own excesses. In the 1990s, we lived it up, and we are paying the price of bad PR. The generics industry would do well to take note of pharma’s mistakes and learn from them.
