Given recent innovations in Internet, mobile and mapping technologies, the pharmaceutical industry has a unique opportunity to leverage its resources to increase the transparency of drug procurement and distribution in the developing world through user generated reporting and content.

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During the 1980s and '90s, Schering-Plough refined its focus on four key therapeutic areas and integrating new technologies to achieve important pharmaceutical advances in antihistamines, corticosteroids, antibiotics, anti-infectives and antiviral products.

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Pharmaceutical companies have begun aggressively investing in resources and technologies for their own rare disease programs in an effort to advance understanding of disease biology.

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The same goes for pharmaceutical houses and packaged goods, soft drinks purveyors and aerospace giants like Boeing and United Technologies.

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Besides the reductions, Vanguard also added Agilent Technologies ( A) to its portfolio, and increased its shares in Teva Pharmaceutical Industries ( TEVA).

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He said that the growing use of comparative effectiveness research, which provides information on the relative strengths and weaknesses of different medical technologies, could help close the gap between what is known and what is done in pharmaceutical care.

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While many of these venture-backed startups label themselves as pharmaceutical companies, their efforts have largely concentrated on developing versatile nanoscale delivery platforms that can incorporate different therapeutics, targeting technologies and other functions according to need.

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"These trends demand that pharmaceutical companies become better health care partners with physicians and managed care organizations by offering a range of new products and technologies in related medical specialties that achieve better outcomes for patients, " he said.

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