Algeria Yacine Sellam, president of the Algerian Society for Regulatory Affairs & Pharmacoeconomics, looks at how European countries such as France and Belgium have countered medicine supply shortages and how Algeria can implement these solutions to address its own drug shortage issue.    This situation is not unique to Algeria. Medicine…

Opinion Janssen Australia & New Zealand’s Bruce Goodwin argues that greater adoption of patient-centric practices is beneficial to patients, companies and healthcare systems as a whole. Goodwin also gives his five fundamental pillars to adopting a patient-centric approach.    We know that patient-centricity not only aids better healthcare, it also has…

Opinion Bayer’s Michael Levy examines how artificial intelligence (AI) can assist in both the routine and advanced analytical tasks involved in conducting pharmacovigilance and therefore better ensure the safety of pharmaceuticals and the health of patients.   Pharmacovigilance or Patient Safety aims to promote and protect the health and well-being of…

Opinion Emanuele Ostuni, head of cell & gene therapy for Novartis Oncology in Europe, outlines how stakeholders across the biopharmaceutical value chain can surf the wave of innovation that breakthrough therapies such as CAR-T represent. Waves and Innovation CAR-T therapies are the frontrunners of a wave of amazing biomedical innovation Over…

USA In the face of rising costs in American healthcare, Carla Smith outlines five ways in which the US can improve the financial sustainability of its healthcare system.   Let’s take advantage of systems-level expertise and change our reality for the better In the United States, 18 percent of the gross…

Opinion Much has been made of how Big Pharma needs to learn from Big Tech in order to fully adapt to the digital age. Here, pharma industry veteran Richard Bergström argues that, in fact, the technology industry has much to learn from the pharmaceutical industry and that biopharma is well-placed to…

USA PhRMA’s Anne McDonald Pritchett PhD highlights the remarkable development of cell and gene therapies in recent years and the three ways in which the US healthcare system can better accommodate them: creating manufacturing systems that take treatment timelines into account, a health system that values treatments based on patient outcomes,…

Opinion Pierre Meulien of the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) highlights why cell and gene therapies seem finally braced for mainstream adoption as well as the significant barriers that still need to be overcome for large patient numbers to access these innovative and often costly treatments.   Today, [ATMPs] finally seem to…

USA In a bid to make tangible progress on the issue of lowering prescription drug pricing before the 2020 presidential election, the Trump administration is planning to import cheaper medicines from Canada and elsewhere. However, as the Eurasia Group’s Aditya Bhattacharji and Sandra Yamin Namoos outline, the proposed plan’s impact on…

Europe Janssen’s EMEA market access head Martin Price outlines the regulatory changes that need to be made for patients across Europe to better access cutting-edge cancer medicines.   Recent advances in medical science are the driving force behind the research and successful development of innovative cancer treatments in Europe. By targeting…

People Multinational pharma companies have been setting up shop in China ever since Novartis launched its Chinese affiliate in 1987, with other pharma giants following in its footsteps soon after, eager to penetrate the Chinese market. Affiliates in China are typically large organizations with several thousand employees. Leadership and communication skills…

Opinion Brendan Shaw, Principal of Shawview Consulting and Adjunct Senior Lecturer at the University of New South Wales, shares highlights from the 2019 World Health Organization’s List of Essential Medicines.   The most recent edition of the World Health Organization’s Model List of Essential Medicines was released on 9 July and…