New Pharma Magazine aims to provoke original thinking, ideas and debate on the future of the generic, over-the-counter, biosimilar, and animal health sectors. Publisher, Asa Cox says. “We saw an opportunity to really communicate with the highest levels in the industry and put together articles and stimulating pieces to think about the future of the industry, to really help companies consider their strategies for the long term of their business and then for the industry as a whole.”
The magazine launched this week in New York City as part of the DCAT week, the Drug and Chemical Associated Trader’s week. Below cox, discusses the magazine’s vision and why Generic Pharma 2.0 foundit natural to move into publishing.
Click below to hear audio interview and see full transcript below.
Brett Johnson: Brett Johnson with OneMedRadio here today in New York. I’m with Asa Cox. He is the founding editor and publisher of New Pharma Magazine, a new publication serving the pharmaceutical space, which launched this month. Asa, thanks for joining us today.
Asa Cox: No problem, a pleasure to be here.
BJ: So, Asa, what is the idea behind New Pharma Magazine?
AC: It’s really to provide a publication for decision makers in the pharmaceutical industry. We saw an opportunity to really communicate with the highest levels in the industry and put together articles and stimulating pieces to think about the future of the industry, to really help companies consider their strategies for the long term of their business and then for the industry as a whole.
BJ: Interesting. So what was the idea behind the magazine? How did you come up with this idea?
AC: Well our business Generic Pharma 2.0 is involved in many aspects of the industry. We’ve seen a lot of changes in the generic industry as it moves into over-the-counter and into biosimilars. We also saw multinational companies getting involved in the generic space. We also are increasingly involved in emerging markets and we really saw that there was an opportunity to bring together all of these changes and all of these information that we were seeing in the rest of our business and put it together into a publication. We had a lot of contacts who were interested in the future of the industry because of these reasons and it was a natural move for us to go into publishing.
BJ: Can you tell us a little bit about Generic Pharma 2.0 and its background and its business?
AC: Sure. I mean initially it was founded in 1997. It evolved from being a trading business in active ingredients actually and eventually has turned into a business of two parts. One still doing technical operations and projects in the generics space and the online business, which was founded in 2008, as GenericLicensing.com. We’re one of the first companies to have a large database of intellectual property for licensing in the generic space and through that we got a lot of opportunities and contacts and now we’ve moved into an abundance of other areas, over-the-counter, biosimilars, animal health, and just also launched the magazine as we’ve been talking about and a consulting business. It’s really incredible the power of the internet and how connected you can be in an industry even as old as the pharmaceutical one.
BJ: So how will the New Pharma Magazine use the internet? So it’s a printed publication, is it not?
AC: It is, but we’re trying not to focus on just the traditional media. I mean our business has grown through the use of the web and it’s going to be an interactive digital brand for sure. We have the opportunity to do multi-languages, which of course in a global industry is important. It will be in print, but we will be doing an interactive digital version, which we believe will be the first in the industry. So we’ll be able to integrate rich media into a digital format as well as a traditional printed media. Then of course, we’ll have our website as well for premium content for the creation of a community of likeminded people around the topics.
BJ: Uh-hum. So how does an interactive magazine like that work and how does that actually work?
AC: Well it’s the evolution really of the PDF. I mean there’s many magazines out there that just have a flip book, if you like, magazine whereas we’re actually going to take it to the next level where you can integrate the video, you can make comments on pieces, all of the URLs and email addresses are all active. So it’s really having the opportunity for somebody who is interested in the piece to better link out to other sources of information to get more data about the topic and to really connect with other readers and also the authors of the pieces. So it’s really trying to be that segue between a website and a printed magazine and I think we’ve found the technology to really do that.
BJ: So what do you see as sort of the big trends that you’re seeing in the generic space and what are sort of the big issues that you guys will be tackling with this magazine?
AC: Well there’s a number. One of them is introduction or the reintroduction of multinational big pharma companies into the generic space specifically in emerging markets. There’s been a number of acquisitions recently and a number of partnering deals and by the likes of Pfizer and GSK and Eli Lilly and, etc and that’s really muddying the waters of what a generic company is and what a big pharma company is. So that’s one of the parts is how to successfully enter emerging markets when big pharma is obviously so much stronger with its branding.
The second part, which may be of interest to your readership and your users, is biosimilars. So literally the generic industries are based on small molecules, which are relatively easy to replicate whereas biotech drugs and biologics, you know, it’s a whole different ballgame, but it’s definitely the future of the industry for generics. Of course, they can only succeed where there are brands and where there are existing products and that’s a huge challenge for the generic industry, and definitely emerging markets. We’ve seen massive growth in Brazil and China and in Russia and the Brit markets, but there’s new markets coming on next with the Vietnam, the Korea, you know, these markets are definitely opening up to be interested and pushed by their governments into generics. Again, that’s a challenge culturally, the makeup of the regulations and so on. So there’s all these big, big changes coming up in the generic industry, which we’re trying to put forward as discussion topics for now before it’s too late.
BJ: I see. So what’s the value proposition for the reader of the publication? I mean what will they come away with after spending time with New Pharma?
AC: It’s really trying to be thought provoking. You know, we’re really pitching at a very strategic level to try and gain insight into how the industry maybe shaping up, what kinds of things to think about right now with regards to the strategy emerging markets, technology, marketing, all these elements that could be some game changers coming up in the future of the industry and we’re trying to help people think about it now.
So it’s really to stimulate ideas, to stimulate the discussion about the future of the industry of all four of our sectors, the generics, the biosimilars, and the animal health, and the over-the-counter. All these areas face massive change in the future, some convergence, some divergence, and we really want our audience, our readership to be thinking about those issues
BJ: So what is your sort of expected circulation of the publication?
AC: Initially, we’re going out to 10,000 of the very top level executives in the industry. We really want it to be a very defined readership. We want to see it to be dealing with decision makers and influencers in the industry and they’re the ones who inevitably will shape the future of the industry as well. They’re [0:16:10] [Indiscernible] to regulate as payers and insurance companies and so on. But within this space, we really believe there are many individuals and companies out there who just solve and create the opportunities in the future. So we’re really trying to keep it at a very high level influential group of people to really get them engaged in a discussion.
BJ: Well it sounds like a very interesting and ambitious project and best of luck to you.
AC: Thank you. It is very exciting times. The response has been good so far and we’ve got some great contributors for this first edition that comes out as you said in the middle of March and we’re looking to build as quickly as possible worldwide and, yes, incredibly exciting times.
BJ: So how do we learn more about the publication and how do we get a copy?
AC: You can go along to NewPharmaMag.com and there is subscription options there right now. The website will be coming out ready for the launch with both free and premium content, and then if somebody wants to have a printed edition, they can request that or they can continue to recehspace=”12” vspace=”6”ive the interactive digital edition. There’s many ways in which the readership can get engaged with us, but it’s all coming in the next couple of weeks.
BJ: Terrific. And you’re launching on March 14th in New York City?
AC: Exactly, at the W Hotel as part of the DCAT week, the Drug and Chemical Associated Trader’s week. So everybody’s in town and we’re hoping to put on a good party for them.
BJ: Well, we look forward to seeing you there.
AC: Absolutely and I look forward to meeting you.
BJ: Terrific. So that is Asa Cox. He is the founding editor and publisher of New Pharma Magazine, which is launching in March 14, 2012. That’s Brett Johnson signing off for OneMedRadio in New York.