Sanofi With former head David Loew moving to the CEO position at Ipsen, Sanofi appointed French national Thomas Triomphe as the new head of its vaccines business unit, Sanofi Pasteur, on June 15th 2020.    Under the watch of CEO Paul Hudson, appointed at the end of 2019, Sanofi has initiated…

Roche Swiss giant Roche tops Pharmaceutical Executive’s 2020 list of the world’s biggest pharma companies, up from second place in 2019 and third in 2018. Though its best-selling drugs are soon to face biosimilar competition, Roche’s diverse portfolio has ensured that it can continue to drive future sales growth. The firm…

Novartis In late 2019 Novartis hit the headlines in Belgium after it refused to grant access to its one-off gene therapy Zolgensma® for the ultra-rare muscle-wasting disease spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) to Pia Boehnke, a Belgian child.   With Zolgensma® at that point having not yet been authorised by the European…

UK Jameel Zayed of Leyton, the UK’s leading innovation funding consultancy, highlights the British pharmaceutical industry’s rapid response to COVID-19 and the three ways in which the sector is driving national innovation forwards.   With the upheaval of recent months, businesses up and down the UK have been forced to adapt…

GSK GSK, the world’s largest manufacturer of vaccines, has pursued a different strategy to that of its contemporaries in the effort to develop a safe, effective, and mass-producible COVID-19 vaccine. PharmaBoardroom recently spoke to Emmanuel Hanon, GSK’s senior VP for vaccines R&D, to get his take on the company’s unique role…

USA French firm LFB is targeting the lucrative US market with its hemophilia products and recently received two FDA approvals. Although launching new products in the midst of a global pandemic is not without challenges, LFB USA CEO Jose Antonio Moreno Toscano is optimistic that the launches will be a success…

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…

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…

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…

Italy Menarini Group, the largest Italian pharmaceutical company by turnover, has made its first move into the US oncology market through the acquisition of Stemline Therapeutics.   The deal, said to be worth USD 677 million, was announced on 4 May 2020 and completed on 10 June. The acquisition of Stemline,…

Belgium Stakeholders from the Belgian parallel trade industry outline how their activities are helping to solve medicine shortages in Europe and ensure patients have access to the medicines they need. They also tackle some of the criticisms often levelled at parallel distributors and foreground the industry’s vital importance for Belgian, and…