Industry news

• After 3 years, drugmakers are tired of Brexit—but they're ready for it

  18 September 2019 Eric Palmer / FiercePharma

  Pinder Sahota has a list, and he is checking it twice. As the U.K. lurches toward Brexit, the Novo Nordisk scientist has become a logistics expert to ensure there is no break in the insulin supply chain when the separation finally happens. 

• The top 10 best-paying places to work in biopharma

  18 September 2019 Angus Liu / FiercePharma

  Paying well is one way to lure job seekers in and keep existing talent happy, in biopharma and beyond. And while CEOs often catch the limelight for their multimillion-dollar paychecks, it is every diligent worker that forms a company—and some of them also get paid handsomely.

• Russia Presented New Contracts on Drug Labeling for Foreign Manufacturers

  17 September 2019 GMP News

  The Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Russian Federation has published a number of documents within the project for labeling drugs for foreign manufacturers: the standard form of the contract for the provision of labeling codes for drug circulation entities (foreign legal entities), the standard form of an agreement on the provision of emission recorder to drug circulation entities (foreign legal entities), the standard form of the agreement on the provision of emission recorders by providing remote access to it free of charge.

• European Parliament’s ENVI Urges to Give EMA More Money and Staff

  17 September 2019 GMP News

  The European Parliament’s health committee has renewed its call for the region’s drug regulator to be given more money and staff. ENVI, the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, made the comment in its opinion about the European Union’s 2020 budget proposal.

• Russia Announced Start of Vaccination with New Quadrivalent Influenza Vaccine

  16 September 2019 GMP News

  The head of Russia’s Ministry of Health, Veronika Skvortsova, announced the start of vaccination with a new quadrivalent influenza vaccine of high-risk groups, and by 2023 the Ministry plans to completely replace the existing trivalent vaccines. According to Skvortsova, the peculiarity of the new vaccine is that it forms the immunity against two influenza A virus strains (H1N1 and H3N2) and two influenza B virus strains (Victoria and Yamagata).

• Who Will Head FDA?

  16 September 2019 Jill Wechsler / BioPharm International

  Time is running out on Ned Sharpless’ term as FDA acting commissioner, generating much talk as the administration shows interest in naming a new head for the agency. While there has been wide expectation that Sharpless would gain the nomination, nothing is simple in Washington these days. Another cancer specialist, Stephen Hahn, chief medical officer at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, has emerged as a likely contender.

• Many cancer drugs don't hit their intended targets: study

  13 September 2019 Angus Liu / FiercePharma

  Most cancer drugs that enter clinical trials never make it past regulatory review. Why? It might be because they do not actually hit their intended molecular targets, scientists at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) argued in a new study.

• What's in an IPO? Biotech IPO winners and losers, 2012-present

  13 September 2019 Amirah Al Idrus / FiercePharma

  What’s in an IPO? How does a company win (or lose) in its public debut? On the surface, it’s easy. Did it raise a lot of money? Did investors pay a higher price per share than expected? Did it go off without a hitch? 

• They're patients, too: UCB employees share their own stories in fall campaign

  12 September 2019 Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharma

  At some point in life, everyone will be a patient. That’s one of the core drivers behind UCB's campaign featuring its own employees’ diverse experiences as patients, caregivers and dedicated researchers.

• Managing the 3 Fronts of the Drug Pricing Conundrum: Policy, Creativity, Collaboration

  12 September 2019 Thomas Unger / Pharmaceutical Executive

  Advances in genomics are leading to pharma’s rapid generation of precise targeted therapies. These and other advances demand an equally timely adaption among key stakeholders, including policymakers, payers, providers, patients, and others across the healthcare ecosystem. If policymakers and other stakeholders fail to meet the call of new capabilities and the increasing rate of change, the science will lose all impact, and worse yet, patients will be unable to access potentially life-changing medicines.