Tagged with Vaccines

USA Stephen J. Ubl, president and CEO of PhRMA, outlines the unprecedented collaboration and speed with which the biopharmaceutical industry has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic and the solutions that PhRMA is proposing to lower patient costs while protecting innovation and access.   We know that our innovation and our collaboration…

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…

Global UNICEF’s Eva Kadilli outlines the work that the organisation’s supply division is undertaking in the global push for a COVID-19 vaccine, the impact of the pandemic on immunisation programs for other diseases globally, and makes a call for further solidarity between stakeholders across the public sector, private industry, and civil…

Europe Dr Pierre Meulien, executive director of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI), the world’s largest life science public-private partnership between the European Union and the European pharmaceutical industry, shares the incredible work IMI has been doing through the COVID-19 pandemic, along with the critical importance of public-private partnerships for areas like…

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…

USA In the aftermath of the fiery first presidential debate between incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic Party rival Joe Biden, we round up the latest on how the latest developments in US politics stand to affect pharma and healthcare. Featured are the two candidates’ proposals for drug pricing reform and Trump’s…

USA Dr Peter Marks MD, PhD, director of the Center for Biologics Evaluation and Research (CBER) at the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), highlights the Center’s contributions related to the regulatory science behind vaccine development, including vaccines to prevent COVID-19; the Center’s efforts to facilitate the advancement of the field…

Europe Ole Olesen, executive director of the European Vaccine Initiative (EVI), shares the highlights of his first nine months in the job grappling with a global pandemic; the mission of EVI to support the development of non-commercially viable vaccines as well as to create a European vaccine infrastructure; as well as…

Global Dr Muhammad Ali Pate, Global Director for Health, Nutrition and Population at the World Bank as well as Director of the Global Financing Facility for Women, Children and Adolescents, reflects on the impact of the current COVID-19 pandemic on the work that the global institution has been doing to promote…

Asia-Pacific In an exclusive and wide-ranging interview, Takeda APAC SVP Thomas Willemsen outlines his strategy for bringing the company’s specialty pharma portfolio to the diverse group of countries that make up the APAC region, the potential significance of Takeda’s upcoming dengue vaccine, and what Asia’s contribution to global healthcare and life…

Coronavirus During the fourth International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) COVID-19 media briefing, one thematic dominated: collaboration. With Eli Lilly chairman and CEO David Ricks, also president of IFPMA; Roche CEO Dr Severin Schwan, also vice-president of IFPMA; Pfizer chairman and CEO Dr Albert Bourla; MSD (Merck & Co.…