UAE We look at three of the most important regulatory trends in UAE healthcare and the impact they stand to have on pharma multinationals, local firms, service providers, and patients.   There are several regulatory bodies in the UAE, including the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MOHAP), the Dubai Health Authority…

Sweden Swedish firm Orexo AB, despite its relatively small stature, is playing a major role in combating one of the USA’s biggest public health emergencies – the opioid crisis.   Orexo, most widely known for its opioid dependence drugs, was founded in 1995 in Uppsala, Sweden. Its top-selling product is Zubsolv,…

China On 21 September 2019, the China Pharmaceutical International Innovation and Research Development Association (PhIRDA), officially inaugurated the 4th China Biomed International Innovation Conference (CBIIC), at the Suzhou International Convention and Exhibition Center near the gorgeous Jinji Lake in the middle of the Suzhou Industrial Park.   The 4th CBIIC was…

Opinion Professor Jackie Hunter looks at why the pharmaceutical industry has been so slow to adopt artificial intelligence-based technologies and makes a prediction for the industry’s future, including a significantly increased amount of interplay between large technology and pharma companies.   The past two decades have seen an explosion of biomedical…

UAE The UAE is putting a greater emphasis on healthcare than ever before as part of its ‘Vision 2021’ model. With the aim of being “flexible in adopting new economic models and capitalizing on global economic partnerships,” the Emirates are seeing greater numbers of investments and partnerships in healthcare, many of…

China 2009 marks 40 years of China’s liberalization and opening up under then-Premier Deng Xiaoping. Servier China also bears the distinction of having been established that year, celebrating its 40th anniversary in tandem with its host country.   The success of Servier China is based on the quality of the people…

China The meteoric growth of the pharmaceutical industry in China in recent years has seen a host of top Chinese talent return home from studying and working overseas to establish their own firms. Dubbed ‘Sea Turtles’ (‘海龟’ haigui), as ‘海’ (hai) means ‘ocean’ in Chinese and ‘龟’ (gui) is a homonym…

Opinion Sophia Ononye outlines the history of cannabis as a medicine in the US and, following the first FDA approval of a cannabis-derived drug product in 2018, the highly promising landscape for further approvals.   The landscape for approved CBD products is highly promising and will undoubtedly lead to additional FDA…

Algeria Yacine Sellam examines how pharmacists in Algeria can follow the lead of their US counterparts and play a greater role in patients’ diabetes management.   Noncommunicable diseases are a growing burden in Algeria. The results of a STEPwise survey revealed that, for adults aged between 18 and 69 years, 23.6…

Opinion The AAM’s Chip Davis tackles the issue of abandonment within US healthcare and proposes three measures to boost competition, thereby lowering drug prices and reducing abandonment rates.   Generic and biosimilar prescription drugs manufactured by member companies of the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM) play an integral role in the…

Thailand As Thailand’s focus has shifted towards R&D over the past few years, the number of in-country clinical trials being conducted has increased concurrently. From 2011 to 2016, Thailand conducted a total of 739 clinical trials, the largest number within the Southeast Asian region, followed by Singapore (610 trials) and Malaysia…

Sweden Thanks to the cooperation of its citizens, Sweden boasts a comprehensive patient registry of electronic health records. Multinational pharma companies increasingly look to these registries to collect real-world evidence, which helps them develop more innovative treatments.     Combining data from the disease registry with the healthcare databases allows us…