France With revenues projected to reach USD 27.01 billion in 2024, France’s pharma market is ranked fifth globally. Home to a number of well-established local pharma players and a sought-after destination for international investments, France is looking to boost innovation, attracting the largest number of R&D centres in Europe in 2022,…

Portugal Portugal boasts a well-developed universal healthcare system and saw healthcare spending increase by 6.2 percent annually between 2016 and 2021, according to the OECD. However, the representatives of innovative medicines manufacturers embedded in the country are keen to point out that access to the latest drugs remains a big issue…

Europe A new piece in the January 2023 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine lays out how a new coalition aims to transform the landscape for rare disease treatments in Europe and beyond.   The knowledge and infrastructure required to unlock rare disease “white spots,” diseases where there is currently no…

United Kingdom The recent FDA decision to investigate the serious risk of patients developing new cancers after treatment with CAR-T therapies may have created some bad press around cell and gene therapies, but AstraZeneca has continued to consolidate its ambitions in the area with the acquisition of China-based cell therapy biotech, Gracell…

Denmark After transitioning from a fledgling biotech to a mature commercial-stage company on the back of its first approval, Zealand Pharma was hit with the challenges of commercialisation and the disappointing sales of its severe hypoglycemia treatment, Zegalogue. As a result, in 2022, the Danish firm did an about face, sacked…

France Just five months after taking office, Aurélien Rousseau resigned from his role as health minister in protest against France’s recently adopted immigration law. Interim replacement Agnès Firmin Le Bodo, the sixth health minister since 2017, is not expected to stay long after accusations relating to gifts she obtained from pharma…

UK A roundup of the biggest stories from UK pharma, including the latest agreement between the British government and industry on a renewed drug pricing clawback scheme; GSK’s search for deals in China; the London-based CRO hVIVO’s new USD 21 million contract, and the latest biotech arising from Cambridge startup incubator…

Europe The European Union’s just-released and first essential medicines list is the latest in a series of measures designed to limit the bloc’s reliance on countries outside its borders and avoid drug shortages. As Elisabeth Stampa of generic and biosimilar lobby group Medicines for Europe recently explained to PharmaBoardroom, this is…

United Kingdom AstraZeneca has made a bold move by offering its in-house digital clinical trial expertise to clinical research organisations (CROs) and other pharmaceutical companies via the launch of healthtech business Evinova. AstraZeneca’s apparent willingness to share expertise with its competitors has raised some eyebrows, but the British firm is steadfast in…

Portugal Portugal’s strong legal framework along with its low production costs and strategic location within Europe have given rise to a thriving medicinal cannabis sector. With exports in 2022 that surpassed the previous year by 63 percent and an increasing number of companies licensed for cultivation and manufacturing, the country is…

United Kingdom Since its creation over 20 years ago, the National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE), the Health Technology Assessment (HTA) body for England and Wales, has forged a solid reputation as one of the world’s foremost HTA authorities. Speaking at the recent FT Global Pharma and Biotech Summit, NICE…

Global UCB has been undergoing a far-reaching digital business transformation, integrating novel approaches across its R&D organisation, including Computer-Aided Drug Design (CADD) and AI, while striving to maintain a patient-centric focus. Speaking at the recent FT Global Pharma and Biotech Summit, CEO Jean-Christophe Tellier discussed the Belgian midcap’s digital undertakings and…