UK After a tumultuous year, AstraZeneca is creating a standalone vaccine unit and will begin to charge for its COVID-19 vaccine shot, having previously provided it at cost. PharmaBoardroom looks back at the reputational hits (some fair and some less so) that the firm has suffered over the past 12 months…
Turkey As an upper-middle-income country with an emerging economy, Turkey could not invest billions in COVID-19 vaccine R&D, but a strong research ecosystem and willing industry allowed it to kickstart multiple vaccine and drug projects, discovering a new collaborative model along the way. The responsibility for coordinating Turkey’s research and…
UK The latest news from UK pharma, including AstraZeneca’s decision to create a dedicated business unit for its COVID-19 vaccines, GSK’s raised profits forecast, and CDMO Almac’s move to create over 1,000 new jobs at its facilities in Northern Ireland over the next three years. AstraZeneca to create dedicated Covid…
Turkey Prof. Hasan Mandal, president of the Scientific and Technological Research Council of Turkey (TÜBİTAK), explains how the COVID-19 platform coordinated by the agency has transformed the Turkish ecosystem by bringing together 436 researchers from 49 different institutions to collaborate on 17 drug and vaccine development projects. In addition, Prof. Mandal…
Africa Three months after the World Bank announced a EUR 600 million loan to South Africa’s Aspen Pharmacare, the African continent has received more good news as it seeks to increase vaccine manufacturing know-how. BioNTech, the company behind Pfizer’s mRNA-based COVID-19 vaccine, sold under the brand name Comirnaty, recently announced…
Korea Amid global supply shortages and shipment delays for COVID-19 vaccines, South Korea has launched an ambitious 2.2 trillion won (USD 1.9 billion) investment plan to become one of the world’s five largest COVID-19 vaccine manufacturing hubs by 2025. Here, we provide a rundown of some of the key companies involved…
Brazil The latest news from Brazil, including Pfizer’s plans to vaccinate the entire Brazilian city of Toledo, what the US can learn from Brazil’s successful vaccine campaign, and a new deal to import the vaccine candidate from China’s CanSino Biologics. Pfizer will vaccinate entire city in Brazil as part of…
Africa In a notable first, following successful pilot immunisation programmes in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi, the World Health Organization (WHO) has recommended that the RTS,S malaria vaccine be rolled out across sub-Saharan Africa and in other regions with moderate to high malaria transmission. Financing for the pilot programme has been…
India The latest news from Indian pharm and healthcare, including Piramal Enterprises’ decision to demerge and list its pharma arm, the country’s 15 pharma billionaires, Danish CNS firm Lundbeck’s decision to shutter its Indian operations, Bharat Biotech’s connection to the world’s first malaria vaccine, and the two million missing workers within…
Global Paula Barbosa, head of influenza policy and advocacy at the IFPMA and board member of the #TogetherAgainstFlu campaign, looks ahead to what could be a devastating 2021/22 flu season, with natural immunity among vulnerable populations down following the pandemic induced lockdowns and preventive measures of last year. Barbosa lays out…
Russia The latest news from Russian healthcare and life sciences, including the WHO’s decision to suspend the approval process for the country’s Sputnik V COVID vaccine, hesitant uptake of Sputnik V both at home and abroad, and an in-depth feature on Russia’s untreated pain epidemic. Sputnik V: WHO suspends…
Turkey The president of the Turkish Health Institutes (TUSEB), Dr Erhan Akdoğan, provides a behind-the-scenes look at the development process of Turkovac, the country’s first homegrown COVID-19 vaccine which is currently undergoing phase III clinical studies. Dr Akdoğan took over TUSEB, and the nine institutes under its responsibility, in the middle…
See our Cookie Privacy Policy Here
