Denmark Catherine Mazzacco’s two-year stint as CEO of Danish dermatology specialist LEO Pharma is over. With the company’s board planning for an initial public offering (IPO) within the next four-to-five years, LEO is now on the lookout for a replacement with capital market experience and the ability to steer the firm…

Spain A rundown of five things to know about the healthcare and life sciences industry in Catalonia. Nestled in Northeastern Spain and bordering France, Catalonia’s capital and largest city is Barcelona. The region boasts a strong scientific output by European standards, is the birthplace of many of Spain’s pharma success stories,…

Denmark Denmark boasts plenty of strong fundamentals as a clinical trials hub, but is perhaps constrained by a population of just 5.8 million and a correspondingly small patient pool. However, international collaboration, not least with neighbouring Sweden (population 10.4 million), has the potential to greatly increase the pool from which trial…

Spain Aiming to leverage European Union funds to reindustrialise its economy, the Spanish government has approved a public-private collaboration instrument to transform its health sector. The project looks to position Spain as a leader in precision medicine R&D and strengthen its healthcare sector with an investment of EUR 1.46 billion that…

Denmark Medtech The DKK 56bn (EUR 7.5bn) Danish medtech industry employs 15,200 workers, accounts for 7.4 percent of Danish business and industry’s total research investments, contributes to 1.4 percent of national GDP, and exports DKK 18.2bn (EUR 2.4bn) worth of products annually. Here are five key trends affecting this important sector.  …

Denmark Speaking after the recent completion of a three-year strategic transformation plan, ALK President and CEO Carsten Hellmann outlines the progress made by the Danish allergy giant under his stewardship, including deeper penetration of the US market, shifting from injections to tablets, and driving digitalisation and efficiency.   To put our…

Global Marc Boutin, Novartis’ global head of patient engagement, outlines the company’s “bold vision” of patient engagement and the actions that need to be taken for CAR-T patients in the immediate, short- medium-, and long-term. This piece forms part of our special section, InFocus: Patient Engagaement in the Era of CAR-T.…

Denmark Denmark’s four largest pharma companies – Novo Nordisk, Lundbeck, LEO Pharma, and ALK – are all at least partly owned by independent foundations, which means that their profits are divided between their shareholders and the foundations themselves, with funds then channelled into academia and biotech start-ups. Here, a variety of…

Denmark Denmark has long been at the vanguard of digitalisation, most notably in the form of comprehensive national health registries. This well-established footprint gave the Nordic nation a headstart in battling the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and beyond and can be accredited with Denmark’s relatively successful identification, testing, and vaccination processes.…

Denmark Although Zealand Pharma has been around for 23 years, it has made rapid progress since French national Emmanuel Dulac took the helm as president and CEO in April 2019, with a first new drug application (NDA) and approval, a first in-licensing, and two acquisitions.   Dulac – a veteran of…

Spain The latest from Spanish pharma, including Rovi’s better-than-expected 2021 results thanks to its Moderna partnership, the approval of Hipra’s COVID-19 IIb clinical trials, Sanifit Therapeutics’ acquisition by Vifor Pharma, and the health technology sector’s request to the administration.   Grifols will use funds from GIC to reduce its debt (The…

France The latest news from French pharma, including AI-based biotech Owkin’s new status as a USD one billion-valued unicorn following fresh investment from Sanofi. Also included is another deal for Sanofi, this time in the form of a partnership with Chinese tech giant Baidu to use its algorithm for mRNA sequencing.…