Russia Russia has announced that a domestically developed COVID-19 vaccine has been approved by its health authorities, the first such approval globally. However, with large-scale Phase III trials having not yet been completed, critics both from within Russia and internationally have raised concerns as to the vaccine’s safety and efficacy.  …

Long Read Squirreled away in the lowlands of North West Europe and somewhat dwarfed by the mighty neighbouring pharmaceutical powerhouses of Germany and France, one could easily be forgiven for overlooking Belgium’s zesty life science ecosystem. At first glance, the numbers certainly appear more steady than thrilling: a EUR 5.4 billion domestic…

Opinion In his latest piece, Brendan Shaw casts his eye over why those drawing up health policies need to start incorporating issues of industrial policy into their long-term planning in order to secure investments into the right kinds of R&D and to help build a more open and collaborative innovation ecosystem.…

Brazil Panorama Faramceutico’s editorial team look at how the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic stands to affect Brazil’s over the counter (OTC) market segment during and after the COVID-19 pandemic.*   The OTC segment represents more than 40 percent of the self-service market in pharmacies. As it covers items with exclusive sale in…

Pharma Faces Belgium is a vitally important country for Johnson & Johnson’s pharmaceutical arm, Janssen, globally. In addition to their R&D centre and a pharma production plant in Beerse, Janssen also has a chemical production plant in Geel, a Clinical Pharmacology Unit in Merksem, and a Phase I research institute in Antwerp…

Belgium Belgian doctor, researcher and professor, Stéphane De Wit has been with the St Pierre University Hospital in Brussels since 1983. Initially planning to specialize in intensive care, his first internship took him by chance to the infectious diseases department where he encountered his first patients with AIDS, met his mentor,…

Belgium Belgium’s healthcare system was ranked fourth in Europe in 2019, outperforming its peers across a number of metrics including a relatively high number of hospital beds per capita (six per thousand citizens, compared to the EU average of five per thousand citizens) and the second-highest number of doctor consultations per…

USA Executives from ALK, Sanofi Genzyme and Novartis discuss how they are navigating pricing and reimbursement issues in the USA, home to the world’s largest – but perhaps most complex – pharmaceutical market.   While the sheer dominance of the US market – the largest in the world, accounting for around…

Hong Kong On 30 April 2018, Hong Kong Stock Exchange’s (HKEX’s) introduced a number of reforms to allow and support the listing of pre-profit biotech companies. Nearly 2.5 years later, 20 companies have seized the opportunity to IPO under the new Chapter 18A, raising a total of over HKD 34.92 billion (USD…

USA With COVID-19 having wreaked havoc on global operations, the pharma industry is understandably focused on leveraging its collective resources and knowhow in discovering and delivering prophylactics and therapeutics against the novel coronavirus. However, even as great strides have been made on that front, companies have to continue delivering their existing…

Opinion Jessica Scott, Takeda’s head of R&D patient engagement, highlights how a better understanding of the value of patient engagement across the healthcare stakeholder spectrum will drive better health outcomes and why keeping an open and curious mindset is crucial in this endeavour.   By incorporating Patient Engagement (PE) into the…

Japan Toshio Fujimoto, MBA, MD of Japan’s Shonan Health Innovation Park explores new ways of virtual collaboration that make our lives easier while enabling us to maintain a culture of innovation and growth.   Are social distancing requirements causing the life science industry to return to an inward-looking culture of secrecy?…