Partnering for Cures – Mike Milken and Jeff Kindler (Pfizer) Talk….

Collaboration is the name of the game says Jeff Kindler in this discussion with Mike Milken at the Partners for Cures Convention. If you have around an hour listen up. It is interesting how Mr. Kindler discusses the “old” Pfizer and how they are doing business today, collaborating with other drug companies to combine resources as neither company, a an example HIV, could have not been done with a single effort by either company on their own.

It is interesting to actually hear Mr. Kindler actually admit to pharmaceutical companies for the last few years being totally focused on marketing and sales.

There’s a lot of talk about the creating of drugs today and genomics with personalizing medicine. What was also of interest to hear was the HIPAA privacy issues being a case, would people waive those rights in order to potentially be cured? I say what about the concern over the insurance carrier cancelling you, as this is pretty much where patients want privacy anyway, it’s out of fear and being judged based on an illness you have, whether or not lifestyle was a contributing factor you are “scored” to determine the cost analysis on helping take care of your health.

Pfizer is not fighting the obesity battle right now he stated. Both agree on prevention not being adequate and they mention the budget office not being able to “score’ this to find the numbers to invest, and yes the data is mentioned, those algorithms. To create cures we need the data and healthcare is seen as a cost and not an investment Kindler says, just look at how Washington looks at it. (non-participants)

My small opinion here, education and participation is needed in Washington, we need everyone to learn what this is all about so “they get it”. Also too a bit of a realist here with Mr. Kindler stating he can’t predict where things will be in 5 years, Congress should take some lessons on this one and discover what is happening outside the walls of Washington.

I don’t see the “perfect” BMIs sitting in those chairs on the floor of Congress either. We all took different paths to get to where we are today and can’t go backward, but we can go forward with some innovative thinking and constructive collaboration.

One thing is that you have to admit it is nice to have someone not ancient at the top of the helm here and he understands economics, technology, and has some open ears, unlike the CEO realms of the past where they were basically and they made all the big decisions, today it’s teamwork.

Mr. Kindler said you could email him too at Jeff.Kindler@phizer.com, so it appears he’s open for suggestions too.

Mr. Milken also brings up some good numbers to remind us that the US is not the ruling power that it was a few years ago either as we have fallen down the ladder a bit as global versus country economic standards are here. The world is changing and we need to change too. BD

Partnering for Cures - Program Schedule and Sessions

Michael Milken and Muhammad Yunus – Discuss Healthcare and the Economy

Meeting of the Minds: The Future of Healthcare on CNBC