Saudi Arabia Localising the production of medicines has become a core priority for the Saudi government over the past decade as it attempts to increase national health security, create highly skilled jobs, and grow the non-oil economy. Multinational innovators now have a wide range of incentives (as well as enforcement tactics) to…

Saudi Arabia With Saudi Arabia striving to position itself as a regional leader in biopharmaceutical R&D by 2030 and to cement itself as a global hub before 2040, there has been a coordinated attempt to align research centres across the country under a unified national framework. This National Biotech Strategy, unveiled by…

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia has long represented an alluring marketplace for the global MedTech industry. Not only does the Kingdom constitute the largest spender on healthcare across the Middle East and North Africa region, but its medical device sector has been experiencing consistent compound annual growth rates of over six percent and…

Saudi Arabia Eye health is vital to everyday life, yet it remains heavily underfunded compared to fields like cancer or diabetes. While global spending on oncology is set to reach USD 440 billion by 2028, ophthalmology will receive just USD 38 billion, according to IQVIA. This gap is striking given the growing…

Saudi Arabia With increased average disposable income in Saudi Arabia eliciting more sedentary lifestyles and less healthy dietary choices, more than 68 percent of all mortality in the Kingdom is nowadays attributed to non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Not only does this come at immense cost to the public purse, but also presents a…

Saudi Arabia When it was first initiated back in 2016, in the wake of the launch of Vision 2030, few industry insiders could have anticipated just quite how radical Saudi Arabia’s Health Sector Transformation Program (HSTP) would turn out to be. Since then, several significant milestones have been reached – the retreat…

Saudi Arabia Saudi Arabia’s pharmaceuticals market grew an impressive 9.1 percent in 2024 underscoring its position as the regional heavyweight, and projecting a sales value of around USD 11.6 billion, which constitutes approximately 32 percent of the total share of the Middle East and Africa (MENA) region in the global marketplace. Yet…

Global Radioligand therapy (RLT), a specialized type of radiopharmaceutical therapy (RPT) that targets markers on tumor cells, is becoming a cancer treatment game changer. With a first FDA approval for Novartis’ Pluvicto, RLT has proved its potential. But are current regulatory frameworks and healthcare systems prepared to integrate this less-than-typical therapy?…

Americas Diego Salas from the Latin American Federation of the Pharmaceutical Industry (FIFARMA) and Carlos Felipe Escobar Roa from the Instituto de Prospectiva e Innovacion en Salud (INNOS), writing in the May 2025 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, discuss the findings of a pioneering report launched at the end of…

Investment In a year marked by uncertainty and tighter capital flows, the competition to attract life sciences investment has never been fiercer. Global hubs are not just showcasing infrastructure or talent – they’re fighting for the soul, and pockets, of the industry’s future. We spoke to the CEOs of regional investment…

Italy Banking on three key therapeutic areas, including a newly established rare disease franchise, the Italian midcap Chiesi has pursued a sweeping transformation in recent years. In its reboot efforts, the company has not only made significant R&D investments, but pursued key M&A and partnership deals, and aimed for global expansion.…

Global 2023 may have been a breakthrough year for cell and gene therapies with the FDA approving a record of seven novel treatments, but 2024 did not fall behind in the number of greenlit therapies. With seven new approvals and three expanded indications, the cell and gene therapies authorized by the…