Europe The Top Five countries in Europe ranked by amount spent on pharma R&D. While some of the continent’s largest and most developed nations are represented, other smaller countries are punching above their weight. This data is taken from the 2021 edition of the EFPIA’s comprehensive annual data review of the European pharma…

Sweden Anders Blanck, CEO of Lif, the trade association for the research-based Swedish pharmaceutical industry, writes about the challenges the world faces from antimicrobial resistance (AMR). Sweden has for decades been a pioneer in the field, and Blanck believes that Sweden is an excellent test market for various incentive models that,…

South Africa A roundup of the latest news from South African pharma, including Aspen’s impressive annual growth, Adcock Ingram’s full year profit drop, and Entos Pharma’s approval for Phase II clinical rials in South Africa for its COVID-19 DNA vaccine candidate. In addition, an African Union envoy says that vaccines made in…

Global Pharma industry leaders have called for rich nations to stop stockpiling excess COVID-19 vaccine doses and stated that there will be enough production by the end of the year to cover the entire global population. The head of Pfizer, J&J, and industry association the IFPMA also hope that this surge…

APAC The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region is home to around 1.44 billion people, over 60 percent of the world’s population, and a vast diversity of cultures, infrastructures, and economic development. Managing a life sciences company across multiple countries in this region can be extremely challenging but hugely important on both a human…

China Song Ruilin, chairman of the China Pharmaceutical Innovation and Research Development Association (PhIRDA), picks out the key learnings from recent legislation to improve China’s drug regulatory capacity and why it potentially marks a new era for the country’s innovative pharma industry.   On April 27, 2021, the General Office of…

Saudi Arabia Looking to diversify its economy while simultaneously improving its healthcare system, Saudi Arabia has been rolling out incentives for international companies to invest in local manufacturing. Here are three trends that the Kingdom hopes will catch the attention of global biopharma and generics investors.   With the aim of creating…

Global Bill Sibold, Executive Vice President and Head of Sanofi Genzyme, highlights the achievements of the company’s Rare Humanitarian Program over the last 30 years, bringing treatments to patients in developing countries with lysomal storage disorders who would otherwise not have access. Sibold outlines the persistent obstacles facing people with rare…

USA John M. O’Brien, recently appointed president and CEO of the US National Pharmaceutical Council, calls for innovation in benefit design reform to match the unparalleled speed and ingenuity with which the biopharmaceutical industry developed vaccines and therapeutics to combat the COVID-19 pandemic.   The biopharmaceutical industry developed COVID-19 vaccines and…

China The following is an overview from Accestra Consulting* of Part 1 of China’s Center for Drug Evaluation (CDE)’s 2020 reporting, including data on drug approvals for all application types (including Investigational New Drugs (INDs), New Drug Applications (NDAs), and ANDAs), hot topics within new drug approvals for 2020, and reasons…

China The latest news from Chinese pharma, including Fosun Pharma’s 2021 interim results; how AstraZeneca, Bayer, Eli Lilly, Merck & Co., Novartis, Novo Nordisk, and Sanofi have achieved China growth in the first half of the year despite pricing squeezes on their mature brands; and why Bayer sees huge growth potential…

Denmark Established in 2017, the Danish Medicines Council is the health technology assessment (HTA)-like body in Denmark which assesses the value for patients and costs to society of new medicines. The Medicines Council then makes recommendations to the Danish Medicines Agency (the country’s regulator) and Amgros (the national public procurement body).…