Cases - Business

Infosnacking was declared word of the year for 2005 by Webster’s New World College Dictionary. I

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

f you are reading this article while at work, and it is not research for your company or related to your job i

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

Examples of combination products may in

n some way, then you are officially infosnacking. Dang, we use to just call it ‘screwing the dog’, but

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

uess that is no longer Politically Correct. Infosnacking is defined as using the internet, on company time, to

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

check your email, read the news, peruse the sports scores or a myriad of other internet related time stealers

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

Combination pro

Long gone are the days employers have to worry about extended lunch or smoke breaks hurting the bottom line?

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

Companies now have to be worried about employees wasting precious time at any point they are sitting in front

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

of their computer. Just imagine, a few minutes to check Hotmail here, a few minutes to read a joke there and v

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

oila…another hour gone to the internet gods and money down the drain.

It is estimated that infosnacking
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
, also referred to as cyberslacking, costs the North American economy alone billions of dollars in lost produc
ts. Some of the combination products were well accepted by physicians while others suffered. Companies involved in development of combination products are fi
tivity. Study after study of employee internet usage consistently shows a percentage of online time being spen
ding difficulty in defining their combination products and facing various challenges from selecting a combination to marketing it.

Following aspects would a
t on non work related activities.

There are opposing views on what to do in the corporate world about ‘inf
dd to the challenges in developing combination products:

Which markets to tap where the combination products can do fairly well?
Which combination prod
snacking’. Many companies are monitoring and consequently dismissing even the smallest abusers of company
cts are meaningful and rational?
Which therapeutic categories to select?
Which Combinations can address unmet needs of the patients?
Do combin
internet privileges. Alternatively, some corporations are going the complete opposite route, and allowing peri
tions increase the patient compliance?
What would be the developing cost?
How to tackle the risks encountered during combination product developmen
dic use of the internet on company time to help their employees reduce stress in their life. Examples of this
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
would be allowing an employee to complete their internet banking, send a personal email or two, or just read t
ping new procedures for reviewing their safety, efficacy and quality.

Professional from academic institutions, pharmaceutical industries, health care indust
e news while on lunch or a coffee break. Their view is a happy employee most often is a productive employee!

y and representatives from various regulatory agencies are working out to design the regulatory requirements for manufacture and sale of combination products
Either way, infosnacking is here to stay, and despite dangerous estimations of lost billions to productivity,
.

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
his could probably be offset by the billions lost to stressed out, unhappy employees calling in sick so they c
elopment. They need to be wiser in analyzing the market trends and the regulatory requirements.

Companies that provide selfless information through particip
an stay at home and check their email, surf the web and infosnack in their pajamas, on a company paid sick day

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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Cases - Infosnacking or Just Plain 'Screwing The Dog' On Company Time

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