Tagged with Opinion

MEA On International Women’s Day 2022, Inna Nadelwais, executive director at Middle East and Africa medtech trade association Mecomed, examines the road still to travel towards true gender parity in the MEA medtech workforce, and why diversity, inclusion, and equality in the workplace benefits all parties.   The MEA region continues…

Global As the focus of the global COVID-19 pandemic response shifts downstream from the development and production of vaccines to vaccination campaigns themselves, IFPMA Director-General Thomas Cueni lays out the biopharmaceutical industry’s three new overarching priorities: supporting country readiness, contributing to equitable distribution, and driving innovation.   From the early days…

USA In the wake of Access! 2022, the Association for Accessible Medicines (AAM)’s first in-person annual summit in two years, AAM President and CEO Dan Leonard gives his five takeaways from what he describes as a “rich, complex, and provocative” conference.   The generic and biosimilar supply chains continue to demonstrate…

Global Drawing on the findings of EY’s recently published life sciences M&A firepower report, EY Global Life Sciences Deals Leader Subin Baral makes the case for big biopharmas to seek out alliances and partnerships as an alternative to M&A and lists ten considerations that these firms should bear in mind if…

Global Merck Group’s Vice President Global Market Access & Pricing Strategic Planning Marco Rauland casts his eye over blockchain-based smart contracts and their applications for pharma across supply chain enhancement, improving clinical trials, and outcome-based contracting.   Smart contracts are self-executing digital contracts based on blockchain technology that provides decentralized data…

Global Writing in the February edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Candice Del Rio of Curavit Clinical Research examines the applicability of decentralised clinical trials in oncology research, and their positive impact on both decreasing patient dropout rates and increasing patient engagement. Oncology represents the largest research area globally, with 6.5 percent…

MEA In the February edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine Sybil Nana Ama Ossei-Agyeman-Yeboah of the West African Health Organization, Jane H. Mashingia from the East African Community Medicines Regulatory Harmonization Programme, and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s David Mukanga examine the state of joint assessment procedures in the East…

Global Taking the massive Microsoft acquisition of videogame company Activision Blizzard as his jumping-off point, Shawview Consulting’s Brendan Shaw lays out six key life science industry trends to watch in the coming year and wonders whether 2022 will be pharma’s ‘Call of Duty’ moment.   A few weeks ago, 2022 started…

APAC Drawing on the findings of a recent report launched under the Business Ethics for APEC SMEs Initiative, Thomas Cueni of the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA) outlines the benefits for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) of adopting ethical practices. Cueni highlights some of the key trends that emerged from report, conducted…

Global Bernie Zeiher, chief medical officer (CMO) of Astellas explains why the ‘patient-defined value’ of medicines is crucial to developing therapies that truly address patients’ unmet medical needs. Zeiher outlines some of Astellas’ work with patient advocacy groups to generate these insights, why a new era of real-world data (RWD) generation…

Australia Writing in the January edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, Julia Chan, David Liew, Jana Stojanova, and Chris McMaster of Austin Health, Melbourne and St. Vincent’s Hospital Sydney outline how artificial intelligence (AI) solutions can best be applied to pharmacovigilance in Australia, and the challenges that stand ahead.   For…

China PPC China’s Sophia Duan, writing in the January edition of DIA’s Global Forum magazine, details how the emergence of an effective pharmacovigilance ecosystem is helping to safeguard the rollout of COVID-19 vaccines in China.   Since the breakout of COVID-19, many pharmaceutical companies in China have worked to develop preventative…