Global

New prediction reflects incremental pressure from economic crisis.

4 June 2009

1 June 2009

Pharm Exec Europe's Gerhard Symons speaks to Andrew Jones, a senior pharmaceutical analyst with the firm, about the value of introducing a "risk radar" to your organization.

A new report by the Royal College of Physicians breaks down the reasons why patients are disillusioned about access to medicines, and documents a steady growth in the lack of trust between industry and the NHS. More importantly, it gives recommendations on how to solve the problems.

It could be the end of the road for the UK's biotech firms if drastic action isn't taken soon.

EC proposal loosens restrictions on drug packaging and information dissemination.

Tensions mount as stakeholders in the UK health industry attempt to work out drug cost problems

Britain's new approach to drug pricing isn't as bad as the industry feared.

UK agency takes the heat for slow evaluations and failing to consider societal benefits of new drugs

The first wealth is health, wrote American thinker Ralph Waldo Emerson. Indeed, history has taught us (even before Emerson) that health and wealth are inextricably linked-the more money one has, the healthier one is likely to be.

Says Roche UK CEO John Melville: "There is little difference in the incidence of cancer, in broad terms, across Europe, but cancer survival is very different"

Stakeholders worry that less competition among drug suppliers in the United Kingdom could mean higher prices and a bigger bill for the National Health Service

The UK has benefited from the stem-cell debate in the US. Several scientists have fled to Europe's more favorable regulatory stance.

A new European collaboration of biotech, pharma, academia, and government takes up the challenge of boosting R&D.

One health insurance company in The Netherlands is offering doctors a financial incentive to prescribe generic statins and proton pump inhibitors. Doctors and patients complained, but a court upheld the practice.

Serious offenders of the new Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's Code of Practice can be "named and shamed" with adverts in the trade press. Details of breaches by companies will be posted online.

Traders say parallel distribution of drugs generates savings for patients. Industry says it creates more profits for traders, leaving pharma with less R&D funding.