Italy A roundup of some of the biggest stories from Italian pharma and healthcare, including Italfarmaco’s FDA approval for its DMD treatment; Alfasigma’s acquisition of Galapagos’s Jyseleca, the antibiotics deal between Venatorx Pharmaceuticals and Menarini, and the country’s drop in healthcare spending.   Stevanato Group Announces Public Offering of Ordinary Shares…

Japan Writing in DIA’s Global Forum magazine for April 2024 on behalf of DIA Japan’s Open Innovation Community Fumitaka Noji, Takeshi Kono, and Makoto Nagaoka look at how the gap between Japan’s academia and pharma companies can best be bridged to fully reap the benefits of innovation.   Although open innovation in drug…

China In 2023, the first full year after the COVID-19 pandemic, the National Medical Products Administration (NMPA) set a new record by approving the highest number of new drugs in China in a single year, write Chunrong Yu of Gracell Biotechnologies and Xu Wang of Novo Nordisk (China) Pharmaceuticals in the…

USA Johnson & Johnson has been building its medtech arm and creating a differentiated pipeline through strategic M&A, an approach that generated USD 30.4 billion in medical device sales last year, representing growth of 12.4 percent. The company has now acquired Shockwave Medical, bringing its IVL technology on board for USD…

Global ISPOR—The Professional Society for Health Economics and Outcomes Research (HEOR), and PharmaBoardroom’s content partner, continues to monitor healthcare trends and conduct horizon scanning around the world. The “ISPOR 2024-2025 Top 10 HEOR Trends” marks the fifth publication of the Society’s biennial report, which is based on input from its members…

UK A roundup of some of the biggest stories coming out of the UK pharma industry, including AstraZeneca’s bid for cancer specialist Fusion Pharmaceuticals; the shutdown of Sanofi’s R&D site in Cambridge; the GBP 17.9 million initiative to boster UK clinical trials, and Obsidian Therapeutics’ USD 160.5 million Series C funding raise.…

Global Oskar Möbert, vice president of Veeva OpenData, discusses how standardizing customer reference data and systems organization-wide can help biopharmas scale globally and become more agile in their business.   Data quality can make or break an interaction with a healthcare professional (HCP). Reps with access to accurate customer data deliver treatment…

UAE Sovereign wealth funds (SWFs) in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries are increasingly investing in healthcare and the life sciences to reinforce their local industries and pursue the region’s economic diversification goals. Following the Saudi fund PIF’s launch of CDMO Lifera and Qatar’s QIA biotech investments, the UAE fund ADQ…

Spain Thanks to what AstraZeneca country president Rick Suarez called a “thriving life-science eco-system and highly-skilled talent pool,” along with Spain’s leading position in clinical trials, the British Big Pharma is intensifying its commitment to the country with a total investment of EUR 1.3 billion its new global R&D hub in…

LatAm A roundup of some of the latest stories coming out of Latin American pharma and healthcare, including Merck’s new distribution centre in Brazil; the region’s record dengue surge; Roemmers Laboratory’s acquisition of 30% of Argentina’s Tuteur, and Urufarma’s new manufacturing facility in Uruguay.   Merck to open new distribution centre…

Global After seven years at the helm of the pharma industry’s biggest global trade group, the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), Thomas Cueni is retiring. Having played a key role in coordinating innovative pharma’s successful response to the COVID-19 pandemic among other achievements, Cueni is passing the reins…

USA As healthcare costs are set to be a key issue for voters in the upcoming US presidential election, PhRMA’s Robert Zirkelbach lays out why policymakers must abandon partisan solutions that do not address underlying access and affordability issues. Instead, Zirkelbach urges for greater protection of the USA’s world-leading biopharmaceutical R&D…