Spain Its unorthodox name reflecting a somewhat unconventional approach, mAbxience has achieved some significant milestones in its short history, including becoming the only privately-owned company in the world with less than 500 people to have launched a monoclonal antibody biosimilar. “This is not usually a small company game, and mAbxience did…

Global GSK has separated itself from its consumer healthcare business, newly named Haleon, home to brands such as Sensodyne and Advil. Now what? After underperforming in recent years, a few clinical trials fails and a resulting push for change from its investors, the breakup with its consumer healthcare arm was long-announced…

South Korea South Korea has carved a place for itself as a dominant player in the global pharma and med-tech manufacturing industry with national companies Samsung Biologics and Celltrion leading the way. In 2019, the South Korean government announced a USD 1.7 billion five-year plan to fund biotech-related projects with the intention…

Global AstraZeneca recently announced plans to continue investing in China, the company’s second largest market after the United States, with the construction of a production facility that will serve as its regional headquarters in Qingdao, Shandong. The plans were announced during the third Qingdao Multinationals Summit. “To further promote the development…

India Arshia Bhandari of patient safety thought leadership forum PhVFIT examines how India is embracing a more patient-centric healthcare model via the implementation of a national patient safety implementation framework.   In April 2018, the India Ministry of Health and Family Welfare launched the National Patient Safety Implementation Framework 2018-2025 (NPSIF),…

Africa David Mukanga of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation gives an overview of the latest developments on the long road towards the creation of an African Medicines Agency and the push to establish vaccine manufacturing facilities on the continent.   Since the minimum number of 15 ratifications by African Union…

Italy Italy, Europe’s fourth largest pharma market at a size of EUR 23.446 billion, has a highly decentralised healthcare system, with the country’s 20 regions negotiating market access for medicines individually following central regulatory approval. This creates significant complexities for the representatives of Big Pharma looking to roll out their latest…

CEE Some of the most important stories emanating from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region’s pharma industry, including Poland’s most promising biotech start-ups, an interview with Zentiva CEO Nick Haggar, and Takeda’s investment in an IT centre in the Slovak capital, Bratislava. Elsewhere, Pfizer has begun construction on a new…

USA Monica Weldon draws on her own experience as a rare disease patient advocacy group CEO to outline how such groups can work collaboratively with other stakeholders in drug development to better target funding and create a more patient-centric drug development process that ultimately gets better drugs to rare disease patients…

Global The Contract Development and Manufacturing Organisation (CDMO) industry has boomed in recent years, with Big Pharma increasingly focusing on its core business of R&D and outsourcing other elements of the supply chain, including manufacturing, to third-party CDMOs. Additionally, the global proliferation of biotechs – most of which lack the in-house…

USA US generics giant Mallinckrodt, which declared bankruptcy in 2020 after a stream of litigation regarding its role in the opioid epidemic and underpaying Medicaid rebates for its drug Acthar, has announced a new strategic plan and CEO as it emerges from its “restructuring process.”   Controversy on Controversy The USA’s…

China Some of the most significant recent stories emanating from Chinese healthcare and life sciences, including why the development of a domestic mRNA COVID vaccine – widely acknowledged as an essential tool to shifting away from the country’s zero-COVID policy – is under threat from new mutations of the virus. Other…