Tagged with EG

Government Regulation   President Santos appointed economist Alejandro Gaviria as the new Minister of Health and Social Protection in September 2012. Gaviria’s priority has been to create health reform that would introduce the next episode of Colombia’s payer system, following the introduction of Law 100 in 1993, which extended health coverage to…

investment The CEO of MaRS Innovation, a commercialization incubator created by 16 of Toronto’s best research institutions and supported by the government, assesses Toronto’s merits as an innovation hub, and describes several successful case studies of the way in which MaRS Innovation has helped to commercialize ideas in the pharmaceutical and…

Almirall Having only arrived on the market last year, the GM of Almirall in Canada explains the company’s regulatory struggles, the utilization of Almirall’s global R&D infrastructure in Canada as well as the company’s choice to enter the Canadian market and what products they are introducing into it.   You started…

government relations   Under the administration of President Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia is focusing on bolstering the commercial sector. Thanks to the ratification of free trade agreements with 14 countries around the world since 2011, including the United States, foreign direct investment reached a record high of COP 29 trillion ($16 billion)…

Generics Tom Rönnlund discusses the current state of the pharmaceutical industry in the Nordics in this time of austerity, and offers opinions on reference pricing and cooperation in the region. How have the markets in Denmark and Sweden evolves over the past five years, since the financial crisis started and austerity…

Ireland   What makes Ireland attractive for FDI? As the former general manager of Genzyme’s Waterford site, Pat O’Sullivan explains that a longstanding 12.5% corporate tax rate (that isn’t going anywhere) is one factor, but it doesn’t end there. Talent: “The first factor is the excellence of the workforce, which is…

Contract Manufacturing Lilly set up in Ireland three decades ago by purchasing a farm. In its early days, the operation produced intermediaries for small-molecule drugs. Nearby, Pfizer was manufacturing citric acid for soft drinks. The country was a fledgling industrial economy that was still mostly reliant on sectors like agriculture and fishing.…

Contract Manufacturing It is widely acknowledged that pharmaceutical manufacturing operations have entered into a period of significant cost reduction. Service providers like Dalkia—a French energy services company that has built its Irish business upon serving the pharmaceutical sector—have had to help clients cope. Dalkia Ireland’s managing director Pat Gilroy remembers his years…

FDI “The government’s vision has always been for indigenous companies to develop from the expertise brought in by FDI—and we are seeing that happening now.” Joe Costello, Minister for Trade & Development FDI into Ireland has created a feedstock for the indigenous ecosystem: raising the bar for standards and technology, contributing…

government relations In Taiwan, GSK recently signed Memorandum of Understanding with the National Research Program of Biopharmaceuticals (NRPB), building on research partnerships in Taiwan that include a 2007 agreement with National Taiwan University Hospital (NTU)—the first agreement of its kind—a later MoU with Taipei Veterans General Hospital, and a major 2012 collaboration…

Ireland   “The elements that have made Ireland attractive for decades are still here. The big difference since 2007, however, is the cost base. If you are building a pharma plant in Ireland today, it will cost 35 to 40 percent less than it did six years ago,” says Barry O’Leary,…

regulator After the big milestone last year— the Danish Medicines Agency merging with the Danish National Board of Health— can you please comment on why this decision was taken and what synergies have since emerged? Part of this decision was due to economic reasons; we reviewed the institutions that we have…