Roundup A roundup of the latest from the Middle East & Africa region, including Turkey’s debt to US pharma; deals between Saudi SPIMACO and Janssen, Abu Dhabi Mubadala and Germany’s Evotec, and Turkey’s Abdi Ibrahim and Swiss OM Pharma; and whether poorer countries in Africa can truly expect equal access to…

China The collaboration between BioNTech and Pfizer on a COVID-19 vaccine candidate based on mRNA technology continues apace, with hopes for an emergency approval in late-2019. In China, home to 1.4 billion people, BioNTech is leveraging the expertise of domestic firm Fosun Pharma for trials and commercialisation of another vaccine candidate,…

Germany German biotech BioNTech has been thrust into the global spotlight thanks to its collaboration with global giant Pfizer on a COVID-19 vaccine. The company, founded by Professor Ugur Sahin in 2008 with the goal of creating a wide portfolio of individualised treatments for cancer patients, is one of the leading…

Belgium The new Belgian government has moved to streamline its response to the COVID-19 crisis with the appointment of Pedro Facon, director general for health at Belgium’s Federal Public Service Health (FPSH) as ‘Corona Commissioner.’   In his novel new role, Facon will attempt to coordinate Belgium’s complex web of political…

Poland Every year, Polish news magazine Wprost publishes its ranking of the top 200 Polish companies across all industries. Here, we profile the top five pharma-related companies featured in the 2019 rankings.   NEUCA NEUCA has been around for over 25 years and is active in numerous areas of the Polish healthcare…

Asia-Pacific Robert Hall of Hong Kong-based executive recruitment specialist Ardent Search highlights the key traits and experiences that Asian biotech and medtech firms considering an initial public offering (IPO) should look for in a chief financial officer (CFO).   Hiring an experienced healthtech CFO can be challenging, with demand exceeding supply.…

Opinion Michael Levy, head of pharmacovigilance at Bayer Pharma and Bayer Consumer Health, makes a compelling case for the critical role of pharmacovigilance in ensuring ensuring patient safety and future-proofing the global pharma industry amidst the rush to develop and repurpose treatments and vaccines for COVID-19.     The COVID-19 virus…

USA Certara’s Ulrich Neumann looks at the challenges that payment models for cell and gene therapy (CGT) have faced, the multiple models now under development, and why an open and collaborative approach among US healthcare stakeholders is needed if the significant legal and practical barriers are to be overcome.   The…

Vaccines While outbreaks of the devastating Ebola virus have – thankfully – generally been highly localized to West Africa, the highly infectious and lethal disease has generated global trepidation due to its characteristic haemorrhagic fever, a 50 percent chance of death on average, and the absence of any approved treatment. The…

China The latest from Chinese pharma, with dealmaking continuing apace. Featured this week are Zai Lab’s latest IPO listing in Hong Kong, InventisBio Series D financing round for small-molecule drugs, as well as Bioduro and Sundio’s merger to create one of the largest CRDMOs with operations in China and the US.…

Switzerland The USA is now Switzerland’s biggest export market and in 2019 Switzerland exported more to the US than to France, Italy, the UK and Austria combined and twice as much as Brazil, Russia, India and China combined. However, as Martin Naville of the American Chamber of Commerce in Switzerland recently…

UK The signing of an agreement on the terms of a future trade relationship between Japan and the UK has been welcomed by the UK pharma industry, which counts Japan as its third largest export destination. However, with the Japanese government having previously expressed concern about uncertainties arising from the Brexit…