As biotech companies in emerging markets move from imitation to innovation, they will reach a decision point – focus on local health demands or develop medicines for industrialized countries with larger markets. The authors suggest that biotech companies can meet both demands through an entrepreneurial model. However. the logic [...]
As biotech companies in emerging markets move from imitation to innovation, they will reach a decision point – focus on local health demands or develop medicines for industrialized countries with larger markets. The authors suggest that biotech companies can meet both demands through an entrepreneurial model. However. the logic of the entrepreneurial model is such that it drifts to markets with significant demand particularly where this is coupled to a population with disposable income. How do we ensure biotech companies in emerging markets continue focusing on local population needs? Given the logic of the entrepreneurial model, it would mean growing the economies of developing countries and the size of the medicine market. It would also require ensuring that economic growth is broadly shared and that poverty reduction and lifestyle improvement initiatives succeed. Through this disposal income and local demand will grow to support local biotech companies and enable their ongoing focus on local demands. Improving medicine access through the logic of the entrepreneurial model is inevitably a long-term pursuit. It depends on economic growth and market size to incentivize local biotech companies. In the interim, there are other avenues to improving access such as supply chain interventions, improving financing mechanisms, and restructuring the regulatory environment.
Global health or global wealth? by: Rahim Rezaie and Peter A Singer
Pfizer has announced to initiate with more research work on Asian populations in coming years in a bid to develop drugs for diseases prevalent in the region, such as cancers of the liver and head and neck. “Prevalence rates for specific types of cancer are significantly higher (in Asia), for example gastric cancer, liver cancer, [...]
Pfizer has announced to initiate with more research work on Asian populations in coming years in a bid to develop drugs for diseases prevalent in the region, such as cancers of the liver and head and neck. “Prevalence rates for specific types of cancer are significantly higher (in Asia), for example gastric cancer, liver cancer, and head and neck cancer, probably due to factors such as diet, environment and genetics”, Steve Yang, Head of Pfizer’s R&D in Asia, said at a press briefing. The company’s research and development (R&D) executives in Singapore uncovered that the clinical research unit in Singapore, possessing a volunteer list of 14,000 healthy individuals – would be utilized as a base for Asia-specific research. It is revealed that Pfizer initiated with the research work in Asia almost 3-1/2 years ago and its Singapore research unit ranks itself among the three worldwide – the other two being Brussels in Belgium and Connecticut in the United States. This week, the company revealed its conglomeration with MicuRx Pharmaceuticals Inc. and China-based Cumencor Pharmaceuticals mainly to design new drugs to combat drug-resistant tuberculosis, or TB strains that are resistant at least to isoniazid and rifampicin, the two most powerful anti-TB drugs.
Opportunities in emerging markets for pharmaceutical companies may off-set job losses in established markets. This report about Lilly’s plans for China provides some insight into their plans and their moves to meet the growing demand for health care products in China.
Joao
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Eli Lilly and Co. looks at China and sees the world’s most [...]
Opportunities in emerging markets for pharmaceutical companies may off-set job losses in established markets. This report about Lilly’s plans for China provides some insight into their plans and their moves to meet the growing demand for health care products in China.
Joao
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Eli Lilly and Co. looks at China and sees the world’s most populous nation in need of insulin, antidepressants and cancer drugs. The Indianapolis company is gearing up to deliver, with ambitious plans to launch as many as 15 new drugs in China during the next five years. If successful, the push could help take some financial pressure off Lilly, which is in the process of cutting 5,500 jobs worldwide and dealing with slowing growth in many markets. Lilly is a relatively small player in China, ranked No. 11 among the world’s multinational drug makers in that nation. It rang up more than $200 million in sales in 2008, a sliver of its global sales of about $13 billion that year. But the company has invested more than $100 million in China in recent years and hopes to make it one of its top markets.
The National Reimbursement Drug List is being updated for the first time since 2004 with many Western drugs added to the category that entitles patients to a rebate of up to 50 percent. New entrants include Astra’s cholesterol fighter Crestor and its heartburn pill Nexium, along with Sanofi’s anti-clotting medicine Plavix. The fact that hospitals [...]
The National Reimbursement Drug List is being updated for the first time since 2004 with many Western drugs added to the category that entitles patients to a rebate of up to 50 percent. New entrants include Astra’s cholesterol fighter Crestor and its heartburn pill Nexium, along with Sanofi’s anti-clotting medicine Plavix. The fact that hospitals dominate dispensing in China and are able to extract higher absolute mark-ups on Western drugs should also drive market share increases, Morgan Stanley said in a report on Monday. Pharmaceutical spending current accounts for less than 5 percent of China’s GDP but the brokerage expects this to grow by 18 percent annually, representing a “windfall” for Western manufacturers over the coming three to five years.
Read more, source: Reuters
SINGAPORE’S biomedical manufacturing output grew at a robust pace last year to reach $21 billion and employed 13,000 people, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said yesterday.
According to Spring Singapore, last year’s production outpaced the previous year’s $19 billion and a value-add of $10.6 billion.
Last year, the sector attracted cumulative capital of $1.2 billion [...]
SINGAPORE’S biomedical manufacturing output grew at a robust pace last year to reach $21 billion and employed 13,000 people, the Economic Development Board (EDB) said yesterday.
According to Spring Singapore, last year’s production outpaced the previous year’s $19 billion and a value-add of $10.6 billion.
Last year, the sector attracted cumulative capital of $1.2 billion – the funds that firms invest over the entire period of their project – putting Singapore on track to become Asia’s biomedical centre, the EDB said. Once completed, these projects will create more than 1,600 jobs.
Singapore’s strategic location makes it a prime spot for companies seeking to tap into the region’s fast-growing healthcare markets.
“As Asia’s leading bio-cluster, Singapore is well-positioned to help biomedical- sciences companies accelerate their innovation and capitalise on Asia’s growth story,” said Mr Julian Ho, EDB’s assistant managing director.
The biomedical manufacturing cluster, which includes pharmaceuticals, biotechnology and medical-technology products, has been hailed as manufacturing’s saviour in previous quarters.
Manufacturing’s 39.4 per cent rebound in January over the same period last year – its biggest climb in 26 years – was spurred by an almost 50 per cent surge in biomedical output, particularly of pharmaceutical ingredients.
Pharma also came to the rescue last year, when manufacturing numbers bounced back in the second and third quarters largely due to Influenza A (H1N1), said DBS economist Irvine Seah in an earlier interview with my paper.
The medical-technology sector has also done its part in pulling up productivity, said Mr Lee Hock Wee, senior manager for industry analysis unit at the Singapore Institute of Manufacturing Technology.
Its 1.8 per cent projected rise during last year’s downturn comes on the back of healthy growth over the last nine years.
Government efforts to attract multinational corporations to set up operations here have contributed to med-tech’s resilience, Mr Lee added. “Strong overseas demand for therapeutic respiration apparatus, surgical instruments and cosmetic dental fittings is likely to continue driving output here too,” he said.
The robust growth prospects have seen increased hiring across the biomedical manufacturing sector. Last year, about 900 jobs were added, bringing total headcount to over 13,000. Meanwhile, companies like 3M and Welch Allyn are tapping into Singapore’s scientific and engineering know-how to develop cost-effective products.
According to the EDB, more than 4,300 researchers are carrying out biomedical- science R&D in 50 companies and 30 public-sector institutes, expending more than $1 billion annually.
In the same period, leading Japanese pharmaceutical firm Takeda opened its new regional headquarters to work with its regional clinical-trial coordination centre and R&D centre in Singapore. Drug giant GlaxoSmithKline, which recently opened its first vaccine plant in Asia here, is training the local manpower required to run its facilities.
Medical-technology firm Medtronic also announced it will build its first-in-Asia cardiac-device global manufacturing facility in Singapore.
Globally, the industry faces several challenges, including the need to improve research-and-development productivity.
It must also navigate diverse cultures when doing business in this part of the world.
Source: AsiaOne News
Several drug firms have agreed a landmark deal to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations, according to the global immunisation alliance that is overseeing the deal.
Leading manufacturers of such vaccines include GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.
The agreement is the first under a new scheme called an [...]
Several drug firms have agreed a landmark deal to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations, according to the global immunisation alliance that is overseeing the deal.
Leading manufacturers of such vaccines include GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer.
The agreement is the first under a new scheme called an Advance Market Commitment (AMC), which provides a guaranteed market for vaccines supplied to poor nations but sets a maximum price that drugmakers can expect to receive.
It is likely to pave the way for future deals on recently introduced vaccines against rotavirus, which causes severe diarrhoea, and an experimental one against malaria, which combined kill millions in poor countries each year.
The GAVI Alliance (Global Alliance on Vaccines and Immunisation) said details of the pneumococcal deal would be announced in the coming weeks.
“Decisions have been made and we are hoping for an announcement very shortly — in the next couple of weeks,” GAVI’s deputy chief executive officer Helen Evans told Reuters in an interview on Thursday.
“It’s very exciting news because they are going to make long-term commitments.”
Pneumococcal disease is one of the world’s biggest killers of children, claiming up to 1.6 million lives each year. Africa and Asia together account for 95% of all deaths from pneumococcal disease, which causes serious illnesses such as pneumonia and meningitis.
Glaxo’s pneumococcal vaccine, called Synflorix, protects against 10 strains of the streptococcus pneumoniae bacteria which cause the disease. It was approved late last year by the World Health Organisation for use in developing countries.
Pfizer’s Prevnar 13 shot protects against 13 strains and won the approval of US regulators earlier this month.
Source: News Center
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