Pfizer

Making Waves in a Crowded Market

In 2003, Pfizer acquired Pharmacia, including its Endocrine Care unit. At the time, Pfizer was known for selling blockbuster “pills and capsules” and Pharmacia’s Endocrine Care unit for the manufacturing and marketing of injectable biotech products for niche markets.

Celgene Corporation

Overcoming the Dark Side of a Drug

In the late 1950s and early ‘60s, the world was horrified by images of severely deformed infants. The culprit: a drug called thalidomide.

But after research in Israel showed promising results in the treatment of leprosy and AIDS-associated lesions, Celegene, a small New Jersey biotech company, began to explore thalidomide as a treatment for a rare and painful disease: erythema nodosum leprosum (ENL). Makovsky was engaged to help engineer the U.S. launch of thalidomide, under the brand name Thalomid®.

The results exceeded Celgene’s expectations.

Alexion Pharmaceuticals

Building Support for an Orphan Drug

Rhone-Poulenc Rorer (Rilutek)

Hitting a Homerun

We revived interest in what was the first FDA-approved treatment for ALS (commonly known as Lou Gehrig’s disease) with a CIPRA Award-winning grassroots campaign to educate neurologists and patients about the drug. An ALS patient — who sang the national anthem at all Major League Baseball parks — carried the message. The number of neurologists prescribing Rilutek rose to 79% from 52% in one year. Rilutek is now maufactured by Sanofi-aventis.

Scleroderma Foundation

Fundraising Focus

Kos Pharmaceuticals (acquired by Abbott in 2007)

Making a Case for Coverage under Part D

PediaMed Pharmaceuticals

Driving Clinical Trial Recruitment

Overview

PediaMed Pharmaceuticals, conducting clinical trials of a therapy to treat the gastrointestinal dysfunction in autistic children, which may exacerbate the well-known behavioral isseus that are accompanied by autism. PediaMed tapped Makovsky to drive the right type of patient, meeting the criteria for trial inclusion, to its sites as quickly as possible.