India Six Indian pharma and biotech firms have joined the global race to develop a vaccine for COVID-19 with India-developed vaccine candidates moving swiftly toward Phase I and II human trials thanks to international partnerships and financial backing.    The Indian companies currently at the forefront of COVID-19 vaccine development are…

Vaccines Jeremy Farrar, director of the Wellcome Trust, spoke to Financial Times correspondent Vanessa Kortekaas on 25 June 2020 about the global race to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. He emphasized the importance of prioritising access to at-risk populations, supply chain scale issues that must be considered, why there is no future…

France French pharma giant Sanofi is pivoting its focus to invest more heavily in vaccines with a plan to invest USD 679 million in vaccine manufacturing operations in the next two years. This announcement came shortly after news of further rounds of layoffs of research staff working on cardiovascular diseases and…

USA Dan Leonard, Kimberly Westrich, and Brian Sils of the National Pharmaceutical Council examine how a new HHS ruling on how US patients pay for medicines could hurt them financially, exacerbating what is already a challenging time in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic.   The pandemic has been a challenging…

Pharma Faces Veronique Walsh, general manager of Bristol Myers Squibb for Belgium, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg (Benelux), recently spoke to PharmaBoardroom about her diverse career path, transitioning from medical doctor to pharmaceutical executive, and leading a large affiliate through the COVID-19 crisis.   Looking back over her slightly unusual career trajectory, Walsh,…

Merck Merck KGaA has moved to continuously expand its manufacturing capacity and capability in recent years with a number of headline-grabbing investments in sites in its home market of Germany and across the world. Moreover, the company is now increasingly at the forefront of digitalisation and innovation in its manufacturing and…

Europe The European Medicines Agency (EMA), Europe’s regulatory body for medicines, has nominated Irish candidate Emer Cooke to as its new executive director at a crucial time for the agency as its powers and priorities shift in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.   If Cooke accepts and gives an official…

Italy Below we present recent news from Italy’s biopharma industry, including the recent acquisition of Stemline Therapeutics by Menarini, research collaboration between Italy and China, labelling regulations, a new biotech sector report and new studies on antibodies against Covid-19.   Menarini gains presence in US oncology market with acquisition of Stemline…

Coronavirus Against the backdrop of an unprecedented collaborative global push to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, pharma industry executives and patient advocacy representatives at the BIO 2020 digital conference discussed the progress made towards developing a HIV vaccine and what developers of potential COVID-19 treatments and vaccines can learn from it.  …

Opinion Dr Sophia Ononye-Onyia explains why a combination of both repurposed drugs and emerging technologies like 3D bioprinting and artificial intelligence will be crucial in beating COVID-19.   Much has already been said about the hundreds of vaccines that are currently in development for providing global protection against COVID-19 by leading…

China The latest news from Chinese pharma, including the latest on Sinopharm’s COVID-19 vaccine, how geopolitical tensions are affecting trade between China and India, and the country’s latest pharma billionaire.   China’s Sinopharm touts 100 percent antibody response for COVID-19 vaccine it’s already giving to workers https://www.fiercepharma.com/pharma-asia/china-s-sinopharm-touts-100-antibody-response-for-covid-19-vaccine-it-s-already-giving Tuesday, China’s state-run Sinopharm said (Chinese)…

Korea Korean biosimilar firm Celltrion’s USD 266 million acquisition of Japanese outfit Takeda assets in the Asia-Pacific region marks a significant moment in Celltrion’s international expansion as well as yet another big-money deal for Takeda.   Since Takeda’s earthshattering announcement of its intended USD 62 billion acquisition of Shire – the…