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Before meeting my soon-to-be-wife for the first time, I “Googled” her. Google, with its amazing alacrity, turned up several documents in less tha

According to USFDA, a combination product is one composed of any combination of a drug and device; biological product and device; drug and biological product

n a second.

It turned up a paper she had written for a medical journal. It displayed her dissertation. Iteven showed me an article she had writt

; or drug, device, and biological product and fixed dose combination would include two or more combinations of drug.

Examples of combination products may in

en for her college newspaper.

A lot of our personal information is on the web. It’s a legitimate concern.

So it was understandable when a CEO b

lude drug-coated devices, drugs packaged with delivery devices in medical kits, and drugs and devices packaged separately but intended to be used together.

came irate when a snarky website published all of his personal information it could find – including home address and financial worth – just by g

here is enormous increase in the number of combination products entering the market in the recent years. Combination products have proven advantages but fixe

oing to Google. Sure, it was publicly available information, the CEO acknowledged, but that story was just beyond the pale.

The CEO was so furio

d dose combinations are still in the process of convincing regulatory authority on their advantages over the single ingredient formulations.

Combination pro

s, in fact, he ordered his staff not to grant interviews to the news organization, CNet, for an entire year. His choice to “blackball” a website

ucts have become life saving products for the pharmaceutical companies who doesn’t have many innovative molecules in their product pipeline and have been inc

with more than 23 million visitors per month for a full year was a serious one, but one he believed was the right thing to do.

Only one problem.

easingly used in the product life cycle management. Even the companies having product patents are trying to extend their product life cycle through the combi

The CEO in question is Eric Schmidt. Mr. Schmidt is the CEO of Google.

In the days following Google’s decision, dozens of news organizations –

nation products and maximize the revenues. But the companies involved in this practice are overlooking that they are burdening the patients both economically

ncluding National Public Radio, the International Herald Tribune, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Jose Mercury News, and the Associated Press –

and physically. They need to rightly judge the benefits of the combination products and they have to even look at the risks involved when combining the produ

covered it. Many of those stories lambasted Google’s decision. One story was simply called, “Google Goes Berserk.”

Besides being a stunningly to

ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi

e-deaf decision on Google’s part (the kind people should lose their jobs over), there is at least one big lesson to be learned here.

Sometimes,

ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a

it’s better to just be quiet.

Had Google chosen to say nothing after the original CNet story came out, it wouldn’t have become an internationall

dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod

y covered story. It wouldn’t have made it to the coffee shops of California, the bistros of Buenos Aires, or the patisseries of Paris.

Google to

cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin

k a relatively small story and, through awful crisis management, turned it into a much larger one. Even worse, it gave endless ammunition to Goog

tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen

le’s critics who have long feared the implications of so much readily accessible information on the web.

Finally, they did at least two other th

t?

As combination products don't fit into the traditional categories of drugs, medical devices, or biological products, the USFDA is in the process of devel

ngs wrong. We left a message for Google asking for their side of the story. To its credit, one of its representatives, David Crane, did call back

ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust

within a few hours but said that they have not or will not respond to such queries “on-the-record.” That means its enemies continue to get all t

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products

he ink as Google does nothing. Companies in crisis mode need to say something, even if that means a terse two sentence statement sent via e-mail.

.

As there is an increasing trend of the combination products companies manufacturing such products should be able to tackle the problems involved in the de

The other thing Mr. Crane did wrong was offer to make comments to me in an “off-the-record” capacity. I’m not a reporter, and was careful about

elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip

identifying myself honestly. I had no obligation to honor his terms, and could have been the first “reporter” to finally get Google on-the-record

tion in industry events and feedback to regulatory authorities would be able to face the challenges and will be successful in developing combination products

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The best ads don't talk at the audience, and they don’t talk down to them either. In fact, the very best and most effective ads don’t talk to an audience at all. They talk to a person, one person.

A discussion about the poor management that has brought Ford to where it is now.

Many marketing consultants and experts debate on the number of impressions in the consumer or customer's mind that it takes for your business marketing message to stick.

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