USA The day the Biden administration announced its support for the waiver of IP rights for COVID-19 vaccines, Moderna’s stock fell six percent; the day after that, another two percent. However, the Massachusetts-based company’s CEO Stephane Bancel remains unconcerned and believes that their successful vaccine is just the beginning of the mRNA era…

USA In a shock move, Joe Biden’s administration looks set to support a waiver on intellectual property (IP) protections for COVID-19 vaccines.   The decision – which comes amid worrying situations in India and other counties and increasing concern that vaccine-resistant strains of COVID could undermine a global recovery – has…

Mexico While Mexico struggles with its COVID-19 vaccination campaign, residents of the country’s northern states have begun flying to the United States in search of a shot. Fearful of “fake vaccines” in their home country, some Mexicans are risking their tourism visas, and in some cases their lives, to be inoculated…

Canada Writing in the March edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Judith Glennie examines the findings of Health Canada’s consultation with Canadians on what a national strategy for high-cost rare disease drugs could look like.   On January 27, 2021, Health Canada launched a consultation on the development of a National…

Mexico Last Wednesday, the lower chamber of the Mexican Congress approved a bill that would legalise recreational marijuana. With a population of nearly 130 million people, Mexico would join Canada and Uruguay as the only countries to legalise marijuana at the national level in the continent and it would become the…

Brazil Founded in 1950, EMS is one of the top two domestic pharma companies in Brazil. As a key player in the largest and most populous nation in Latin America, the company has around 13 percent of the Brazilian market share with gross sales of USD 2.5 billion in 2019.  …

USA PhRMA’s Stephen J. Ubl outlines two ways in which the new US presidency can help lower healthcare costs and why biopharmaceutical companies support changes to the system that can lower US patients’ out-of-pocket spending and continue to drive innovation.   By bringing an end to the pandemic and lowering out-of-pocket…

Mexico The latest from Mexico’s fight against COVID-19, including news of vaccine tourism into the US, how China’s CanSino is filling the gaps left by Western companies, and AMLO’s call for UN intervention on vaccine rollout.   The Mexican Elites Who Are Traveling to the U.S. to Get Vaccinated (Slate) https://slate.com/technology/2021/02/covid-19-vaccine-tourism-mexico-elites.html…

USA With Rare Disease Day coming up on February 28th, one of the leading organizations dedicated to serving affected patients in the US, the National Organization for Rare Disorders (NORD), is making a push to put the spotlight on the limited access to diagnosis, treatment and care suffered by rare disease…

USA The AAM’s Dan Leonard highlights the savings impact that generic and biosimilar medicines have on US healthcare today and introduces the ‘Secure Our Meds’ campaign which aims to educate policymakers on the importance of generic and biosimilar market competition and how it can be safeguarded.   More than 35 years…

USA Following on from our profile on five of the most promising clinical-stage biotech companies developing orphan therapies in Europe, here we move to the world’s biggest biopharmaceutical market and R&D hub, shining the spotlight on five of the most important and innovative rare-disease start-ups in the USA.   The US…

Brazil The Brazilian pharma market outperformed the Latin American average in Q1 of 2020 with a growth of 8.2 percent in real terms (inflation adjusted), according to IQVIA. Its size reached USD 21.8 billion, with almost two thirds coming from retail. The overall LatAm pharma market grew 6 percent in average…