Tagged with medicine

Europe Victor Mendonça, chair of the Generic Market Access Committee at Medicines for Europe, outlines why patient access to medicines is at risk due to intense price pressure and unprecedented inflation and proposes ways to tackle this. The COVID-19 pandemic and the conflict in Ukraine have caused unprecedented challenges for Europe,…

Africa Lenias Hwenda of Medicines for Africa examines the true impact of access to medicine initiatives in Africa, noting that many of the measures takes are often cosmetic and leave a swathe of “impact bottlenecks” unaddressed. Hwenda calls for a more holistic approach, moving beyond simply bringing medicines to African countries…

USA While patient groups view the United States’ new Inflation Reduction Act as a positive move towards capping out-of-pocket drug costs for older Americans, the innovative pharma industry, after aggressively lobbying against it, still argues that the new legislation will hamper drug development. [The new law] is a significant step in…

China A selection of the latest stories from Chinese pharma, including Novartis’ bet that the country will become its second biggest market by 2024 through the introduction of 50 new drugs, a new report by McKinsey that evaluates China’s impact on the global biopharma industry, AstraZeneca’s respiratory plans, and Gilead’s USD…

South Korea ExoCoBio’s CEO, Byong Seung Cho, went from biotech venture capital to setting up ExoCoBio, a company whose core technology is based on adipose stem-cell derived exosomes for regenerative medicine and medical aesthetics. He walks us through ExoCoBio’s exosome-based finished product line as well as its promising preclinical findings not just…

Italy Paivi Kerkola, Country Manager, Managing Director and President of Pfizer Italy, speaks about the peculiarities of the Italian market from a northern European perspective, her priorities, and the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic and how it not only put Pfizer in the spotlight but also triggered an unprecedented dialogue between…

Africa David Mukanga of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives an overview of the latest developments on the long road towards the creation of an African Medicines Agency and the push to establish vaccine manufacturing facilities on the continent.   Since the minimum number of 15 ratifications by African Union…

Korea Founder and CEO of GeneMedicine, Dr Chae-Ok Yun, explains how the company, specialised in oncolytic virus development, has progressed since we last interviewed her two years ago, with one of its candidates getting close to phase II clinical trials and the construction of a new manufacturing facility that will enable…

Italy Ferring Pharmaceuticals’ Federico Gomes de Freitas, General Manager Italy, gives us an overview of how the Italian affiliate fits into the company’s global strategy, especially with respect to reproductive health, and his efforts to foster corporate culture there. Within reproductive medicine we are the leaders in the Italian market and…

Europe The new president of Medicines for Europe, Elisabeth Stampa, outlines one of the priorities of her mandate: working to adjust the EU pharma policy framework to improve access for patients across Europe.    Regulatory flexibilities implemented during COVID-19 showed that the EU system can require one of highest safety, quality…

North America In April, the Canadian Ministry of Health announced the government would not be proceeding with certain proposed amendments to the Patented Medicines Regulations which govern the Patented Medicine Prices Review Board (PMPRB)—amendments related to new excessive price factors. The decision, well-received by Innovative Medicines Canada, came after these controversial economic…

Spain Weeks after a mosquito forced the recall of 765,000 doses of Moderna’s vaccine manufactured in Spain, the country’s top medicines regulator called for new inspection procedures, praised the loyalty of the Spanish pharma industry and asked if the industry is going “too lean?” Speaking at a conference in Madrid on…