Australia Richard Day of the University of New South Wales, writing in the October 2023 edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, looks at updates to the health technology assessment (HTA) processes in Australia and New Zealand   In April 2023, the Australian Department of Health and Aged Care launched an independent Health…

Japan Real-world data (RWD) offers the possibility of providing important information to help inform regulatory decision-making. But turning this possibility into reality still depends on the quality and reliability of the data, say J&J’s Yumi Wakabayashi and Vicky Han in October 2023’s DIA Global Forum magazine. With appropriate efforts to ensure…

Global New methodology for the 2024 Access to Medicine Index promises a stronger attempt to quantify whether drugs, vaccines, and diagnostics are actually making it all the way to patients in poorer countries around the world.   Industry stakeholders eagerly await the biennial publication of the Access to Medicine Index, a…

UAE From humble origins, taiba can now count on a unique two decades of experience in bringing innovative rare disease products to patients across the MENA region. The Dubai headquartered company, now branding itself as the partner of choice for rare diseases across the region, has also moved to create a…

Hong Kong Hong Kong provides some of the best and most efficient healthcare in Asia, with Hong Kongers living to over 85 on average (compared to 83 in Singapore and 78 in mainland China), and the World Health Organisation ranks the city among the top 20 healthcare systems globally. However, unlike many…

UAE Thanks to favourable regulations from the Ministry of Health and Prevention (MoHaP) which include fast-track regulatory pathways, patients in the UAE are gaining access to innovative medicines in similar time frames to their counterparts in the US and Europe, in some cases even ahead. Against this backdrop, the representatives of…

Global Shawview Consulting’s Brendan Shaw looks back on a sombre United Nations High Level Meeting on Universal Health Coverage in New York last month, as stakeholders reflected on the long road still to travel if the goal of securing UHC for the world’s population by 2030 is to be met. Shaw…

Global Merck’s Kaushal Kishore attempts to illustrate why pharma companies have struggled to crack what he calls “the Gross to Net (GtN) code.” He outlines the maturity journey for a pharma commercial and pricing organisation which can lead to maturity on the GtN topic, and highlights a successful example that can…

LatAm A roundup of some of the latest news from Latin American pharma, including Acino’s acquisition of M8 Pharmaceuticals; AstraZeneca’s growth in Mexico; Neuraxpharm’s expansion into Brazil and Mexico, and Columbia’s decision to issue a compulsory license for GSK/ViiV’s HIV treatment.   Colombia set to issue a compulsory license for an…

Taiwan As a part of the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) COVID-19 Technology Access Pool (C-TAP), the Medicines Patent Pool has signed a worldwide license with Medigen Vaccine Biologics (MVC) for its COVID-19 vaccine, representing a debut on two fronts. Not only is this the first time a COVID-19 vaccine developed by…

USA The US Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed last year by the Biden administration and hotly contested by the innovative pharma industry, has started to look more like a reality since the first ten drugs subject to price negotiations under the IRA were announced in August. The negotiated prices will not…

China A decade on from its launch, the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area (GBA) initiative has made some significant wins but remains some way from fulfilling the vision of a fully integrated internationally competitive bay area to rival that of its US west coast namesake.   Staggering Fundamentals Home to 87…