Global Ever since Novo Nordisk launched Wegovy two years ago, the company has struggled to meet the huge demand for its breakthrough weight loss drug and is yet to make it available in a larger range of markets. Following a recent launch in Germany, Novo Nordisk CEO Lars Fruergaard Jørgensen makes…

India A roundup of some of the top stories from the Indian pharma industry including the suspension of the National Medical Commission’s (NMC) guidelines making the prescription of generic drugs mandatory; the government’s revision of Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) in light of deaths linked to Indian-made cough syrups; Torrent Pharma’s new…

Hong Kong Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) has grabbed a lot of media attention in recent months following the launch of chatbot ChatGPT, but the pharmaceutical industry has long been trying – and struggling – to better integrate AI into the long and failure-fraught drug discovery process. While AI-enabled drug discovery may not…

Middle East & Africa As profit margins in established markets decreased, “pharmerging markets” became the new El Dorado for pharma and medtech companies in the 2010s. Many put in big investments only to discover that the volatility of these geographies often meant that the expected returns did not materialise. However, especially post-COVID, emerging markets…

China A roundup of some of the latest healthcare and pharma news from China including a crackdown on healthcare corruption; AstraZeneca’s cardiovascular mortality drug approval and mRNA manufacturing deal with CanSino; Tigermed’s new Hong Kong HQ; GenScript Biotech/T-Maximum Biotech CAR-T agreement, and the Chinese cabinet’s renewed efforts to encourage foreign biotech…

Germany Following the COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting supply chain disruptions, global drug pricing and access reforms have multiplied. The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has been introduced in the US while the European Commission is looking at a major overhaul of the EU’s pharmaceutical regulations. Germany, in light of the growing…

Belgium Janssen has the lofty aim of reaching USD 60bn dollars in sales by 2025, an 8bn increase on the 2021 figure, despite some high-profile losses of exclusivity and the spin-off of its consumer healthcare branch. This massive growth plan involves both existing products as well as new CAR-T and autoimmune…

Morocco Pfizer’s relationship with the North African Kingdom of Morocco dates back 57 years, and the US pharma giant is the only major multinational with a manufacturing presence in the country. The firm recently strengthened its commitment to Morocco – a nation of 37 million people which boasts Africa’s only free…

Americas Writing in the August edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Silvia B. Bendiner of WESSX Inc. and Belkis Romeu call for greater regulatory collaboration between Latin American countries, building on an initiative created by Dr. Rafael Pérez Cristiá at the Cuban Regulatory Authority (CECMED).   The need for further regulatory…

China Writing in the August edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Wen Yin of the Pfizer China R&D Center and Wanhe Deng of GSK China Investment look back on four years of China’s marketing authorization holder (MAH)-based regulatory system, including the opportunities it presents, and some of the implementation challenges.  …

UK The latest news from UK healthcare and life sciences, including the safety review of Novo Nordisk’s GLP-1 receptor agonists; VaxEquity’s grant to scale up RNA vaccine manufacturing; AstraZeneca/Quell Therapeutics cell therapy agreement and GSK’s acquisition of Bellus Health.   More evidence needed on Lilly’s weight loss drug, UK watchdog says…

Belgium There have been both ups and downs in AbbVie’s recent history. After proving its staying power with the celebration of its 10-year anniversary as an independent company spun off from Abbott, the American drugmaker faced a less happy turning point as its leading drug Humira came up against stiff competition…