Mexico David Peña Castillo is the President and founder of The Mexican Federation of Rare Diseases (FEMEXER). Here he discusses what makes a patients association. When we find a way to communicate the complexities of rare diseases simply, we can avoid isolating anyone and the potential to uncover important information is…

Biotech Pfizer has teamed up with Bain Capital to launch Cerevel Therapeutics, a biopharmaceutical company based in Boston that will focus on developing treatments for a number of central nervous system (CNS) disorders. It has almost been a year since Pfizer announced that they were to cease R&D in new neuroscience…

Japan Pharma Giant Johnson & Johnson (J&J) are set to swallow Ci:z, the Japanese skincare and cosmetics firm.    In a move to really establish themselves within the Asian skin care market, J&J will shell out 230 billion Japanese yen ($2.05 billion) in cash to take over the share of Ci:z…

Kazakhstan Following the initiative of the Ministry of Health, Kazakhstan engaged in activities to reform its healthcare legislation. The concept of the updated Kazakhstan Code “On People’s Health and Healthcare System” is expected to be proposed for consideration by the countries Government in December 2018 and by their Parliament in the…

USA After her son was diagnosed with SYNGAP1 – an extremely rare gene mutation – Monica founded Bridge the Gap – SYNGAP Education and Research Foundation to support families of those suffering from the illness and to accelerate the path to better therapies. Here she discusses the importance of community for tackling rare…

Innovation Richie Etwaru is founder and CEO of Hu-manity, whose vision is to empower people to take ownership of their inherent human data.   The pharmaceutical industry has never seen the full end-to-end benefits of a world where explicitly consented data is available. And this can happen without disruption. Everyone can indeed…

Algeria The global drop in oil prices in 2015-2016 hit the Algerian economy – which is heavily reliant on petroleum revenues – hard. The country’s government implemented severe economic cuts across a number of sectors  (including healthcare), to redress the balance, shuttering plans to create five new hospitals. With the multinational…

Algeria Multinational pharmaceutical companies are increasingly choosing Algeria as a base for their regional headquarters, despite the complexities of the local market. The representatives of Lilly, bioMérieux and Abbott in Algeria tell us why. As geographically the largest country in Africa, Algeria stands out, as does its universal healthcare system which bears…

China In 2013, Chinese President Xi Jinping launched the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative, corralling the two Special Administrative Regions (SARs) of Hong Kong and Macao with Guangdong, one of the richest of China’s 34 provinces. While the official government blueprint was due to be unveiled in mid-2018, escalating…

UK Yesterday, pharma giant AstraZeneca announced that they have halted investment in the UK due to lack of clarity on trading regulations during this time of Brexit uncertainty. “If a transition deal does not make clear what will happen in the future, we will maintain our decision not to invest,” Leif…

Spain Madrid, Spain’s capital, is the city with the highest life expectancy in Europe at 85.2 years. Moreover, Spain as a whole is one of Europe’s best performers in terms of life expectancy, ranking fourth globally and second in the continent.   Explanations for this include the Spanish predilection for a…

Regulation The UK Prime Minister has been convinced by medical professionals to fortify all flour with folic acid to reduce the number of birth defects in newborns. A large cohort of government and NHS advisors are in support of fortification, which already occurs in over 80 countries including the US. It…