Industry news

EMA discussed its future premises in Amsterdam

GMP News

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Management Board met in an extraordinary session to discuss EMA’s future premises in Amsterdam. EMA will move from London to Amsterdam before the end of March 2019, when the United Kingdom withdraws from the European Union (EU).

Russian pharmacy market increased by 6.5% in ruble terms in 2017

GMP News

In 2017, 5065.8 million packages of drugs worth 940.7 billion rubles (in retail prices) were sold through the pharmacies in Russia. This is 6.5% higher than in 2016 in value terms and 3.5% higher in physical terms. The positive dynamics in terms of packages sold in 2017 indicates the improved purchasing power of consumers and lower impact of financial and economic factors on the pharmacy market.

Expect augmented reality to come up big for pharma marketers: expert

Beth Snyder Bulik / FiercePharma

"Show, don’t tell" could become a new maxim in pharma marketing. That’s because the rise of augmented reality, although still nascent, is emerging as a valuable technique in pharma visuals, according to life sciences cloud-computing company Veeva Systems.

Moscow-based pharmaceutical companies increased their annual output by 40%

GMP News

In 2017, the manufacturing of drugs in Moscow increased by 40%, announced the Department of Economic Policy and Development of the city government. “The high-tech sectors of the real economy, including pharmaceutical and IT production companies accounting for 20% of the demand for the office space in Moscow, are the priorities for the new industrial policy of the city. In 2017, the manufacturing of drugs in Moscow increased by 40%,” said the Department.

Roszdravnadzor is authorized to make control purchases of drugs

GMP News

At its meeting held on February 7, 2018, the Russian State Duma adopted in the first reading a draft law that authorizes Roszdravnadzor to make control purchases, which will allow to combat the sales of substandard medicines and violations of the rules for providing paid medical services.

Can emerging technology help biopharma improve the returns on R&D?

Greg Reh, Vice Chairman and Life Sciences Sector Leader, Deloitte LLP / FiercePharma

Nearly $2 billion. That’s the average cost to bring a new drug to market, according to Deloitte’s latest report on research and development (R&D) costs, and returns, among 12 of the world’s leading biopharmaceutical manufacturers. While our study finds that biopharma companies are investing more than ever to develop innovative and effective therapies, their returns aren’t keeping pace.

New Skoltech supercomputer will improve the effectiveness of drug development

GMP News

By the summer, the performance of the supercomputer at the SKOLKOVO Institute of Science and Technology is expected to rise to 1.5 petaflops. Maxim Fedorov, the Director of Skoltech Center for Computational and Data-Intensive Science and Engineering, said that, currently, Skoltech has several hybrid clusters (GPU/CPU) with a total performance of about 100 TF. 

Medsenic raised funding to develop the treatment for autoimmune diseases

GMP News

Medsenic, a  French biopharmaceutical company dedicated to the treatment of autoimmune diseases from arsenic derivatives, raised €2 million funding. These funds will allow it to continue research on arsenic trioxide and promising clinical trials of autoimmune diseases such as Systemic lupus erythematosus and Chronic Graft versus Host Disease (cGvHD).

European Comission published a report on falsified medicines

GMP News

European comission (EC) published a report on the application of penalties for those involved in the production and circulation of falsified medicines published. The report shows a wide variation in penalties across the EU.

WHO exposed striking gaps and inequalities in Health R&D

GMP News

One year ago, the World Health Organization launched a new initiative to gather information and provide an accurate picture of where and how R&D monies are being spent, helping governments, funders and researchers to make better decisions on investment and policy making priorities.