Global

Confronted by a debt crisis and a stagnating economy, the government of Puerto Rico, the world’s fifth-largest pharma manufacturing producer, has turned to the healthcare industry-and life sciences in particular-for new sources of economic growth.

A Pharm Exec conversation with AmerisourceBergen CEO Steve Collis

Senior Editor Casey McDonald visits with industry and regulatory officials in Bogotá to discuss colombia’s strategy for growing its life sciences enterprise, and whether it can be a stable force amid the region’s historically challenging macroeconomic and political fluctuations.

In the last year regulatory authorities sharpened their focus on gathering more data and on achieving transparency and harmonization. Erick Gaussens reviews 2015 and looks at companies’ need to respond to converging demands in 2016.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe is the latest to clamber aboard the well-filled bandwagon now rumbling and rattling across Europe in an increasingly noisy debate over drug prices. Reflector reports.

The much awaited consultation on a ‘new’ Cancer Drugs Fund (CDF) in England has finally emerged. Leela Barham reports.

The new interim report on the UK's Accelerated Access Review, which aims to speed up access to innovation in the NHS, is lacking in detail, writes Leela Barham.

Ebola showed that when innovation is truly integrated, we can enter into unknown territories and bring new innovations with us, writes Neil Saward.

In Pharm Exec’s 2013 end-of-year supply chain roundup, we began with a three-word vision of the immediate future that left little room for ambiguity: “Serialization is coming.” With the impending laws regarding “track and trace” promising to alter the way pharmaceuticals are packaged and shipped, we outlined how global pharma was gearing up to deal with the effects of serialization, and how companies needed to review their own internal practices and those of their outsourcing partners, as the need for technology solutions for both sides of the outsourc

Some of the radical thinking on healthcare spending from a new EC specialist group offers robust food for thought, writes Reflector.

Having reached the end of a decade of marked transformation and overhaul to Turkey’s healthcare system, identifying and acting on the resulting trends, dynamics, and initiatives will be key for the Turkish pharma industry going forward.

AmerisourceBergen believes the power of community begins with talk that gets the blood flowing.

In the midst of a leadership vacuum at the European Medicines Agency, Pharm Exec talks with the organization’s top medical officer, Hans-Georg Eichler, about its potentially game-changing drug approval program-one designed to balance safety requirements with faster patient access to the strong science now emerging from industry labs.

No-one can say England's Accelerated Access Review, which aims to “ensure that the UK is the fastest place in the world for the design, development and widespread adoption of medical innovations" isn't aiming high, writes Leela Barham.

Reflector outlines the current measures European countries are working or collaborating on to achieve a better understanding of pricing issues.

Adoption of joint procurement agreement signals new effort from EU to better understand drug pricing issues.

Nick Hicks looks at the challenges of devising a patient advocacy strategy amid the complex political, cultural and regulatory landscape of Russia and CIS.

After several years on the back burner, Romania’s pharmaceutical sector appears to be enjoying a resurgence-one it hopes will catapult the country’s healthcare system on a path to sustainability over the long haul.

The UK's National Health Services needs to rethink the ‘sticking plaster’ solution of training replacement staff, writes James Brook.

Leela Barham looks at the implications of another round of cuts due to England’s Cancer Drugs Fund in November.

Tighter public scrutiny combined with tough new standards for clinical testing and regulatory approval of foreign medicines are clouding future revenue projections for multinational drugmakers in China. But this also represents an opportunity-if companies adopt a forward-looking approach based on close internal cross-functional collaboration and coordinated outreach to the locals that count.

A new trade expo survey predicts that it is full speed ahead for a market now too big to be ignored, writes Cameron Sharp.

France is a striking example of why Europe is still only "edging towards" a genuine universal system

Plans and policies are in place to leverage the pharma industry as an integral force in transforming Mexico from a predominantly manufacturing-based economy to one driven more by innovation.

Ed Schoonveld highlights the wait confronting lung cancer patients seeking Opdivo in the UK. Can we find room for compromise?

A non-antibiotic bactericidal treatment for humans was first proven effective in 1919. Ansis Helmanis asks why they are not commercially available in the United States.

France's bid to regain its influence reveals how far Europe is from fully achieving regulatory convergence, writes Reflector.

The move towards centralizaton and harmonization means that the regulatoy and pharamcovigilance functions can longer work independently, writes Markus Dehnhardt, Ph.D.

The volatility of nation's crisis could pose greater challenges down the line

Despite rising healthcare costs, Algeria, the second-largest pharmaceutical market in Africa, remains optimistic about its pharma sector, which is riding the momentum of recent healthcare reforms. Manufacturing challenges and a growing prevalence of chronic disease, however, offer pause to the bright scenario.