Industry news

India slashes health budget, already one of the world's lowest

Aditya Kalra, Reuters

The Indian government has ordered a cut of nearly 20 percent in its 2014/15 healthcare budget due to fiscal strains, putting at risk key disease control initiatives in a country whose public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world.

More New Drugs and Faster Approvals

Jill Wechsler, BioPharm International

FDA set several milestones in approving more new, important drugs and biologics in 2014. Breakthrough drug designations went through through the roof, speeding more new therapies for cancer and critical conditions to patients. FDA approved 35 novel new drugs, up from 27 in 2013, reported FDA commissioner Margaret Hamburg in December 2014. 

Year in Review: Key Outsourcing Trends

Eric Langer, BioPharm International

According to BioPlan’s 11th Annual Report and Survey of Biopharmaceutical Manufacturing Capacity and Production(1), which identifies various industry trends, almost all areas of R&D and manufacturing are at least in contention for some degree of outsourcing. CMOs are becoming sought-after partners as a result of their use of innovative technologies, single-use bioreactors, and other novel bioprocessing services.

China eases restrictions on device imports, charting a win for the industry

Emily Wasserman, FierceMedicalDevices

As med tech companies set their sails toward China, a new trade agreement between the U.S. and Chinese governments looks to ease restrictions for imports, paving the way for greater expansion by U.S. devicemakers.

Record Pharma-Deal Year Not Enough to Sell Mature Drugs

Manuel Baigorri, Albertina Torsoli and Oliver Staley / Bloomberg

In a record year for health-care acquisitions, some of the largest pharmaceutical companies tried to sell their portfolios of older drugs -- and failed. Drug companies have agreed to about $260 billion of deals so far in 2014, the most since at least 2002 and more than twice the volume last year, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

U.K. building $85M cell therapy manufacturing operation

Eric Palmer, FeircePharmaManufactoring

The Cell Therapy Catapult is part of a government program created a couple of years ago to pump up the cell therapy industry in the U.K. The group plans to invest more than $85 million to build a large-scale cell manufacturing facility in Stevenage that companies can contract with for early-stage to commercial work.

IMS Institute: Global drug spending is up on substantial boost from U.S.

Brian Orelli, BioWorld

IMS Institute for Healthcare Informatics is out with its latest prediction for sales of medicines through 2018, when global spending is expected to reach between $1.28 trillion and $1.31 trillion, an increase of $290 million to $320 million over 2013 levels.

Global population living six years longer than in 1990 - study

Kate Kelland, Reuters

Global life expectancy has risen by more than six years since 1990 thanks to falling death rates from cancer and heart disease in rich countries and better survival in poor countries from diarrhoea, tuberculosis and malaria.

Senate Bill Offers 15 Years of Data Exclusivity for Drugs for Unmet Needs

Ed Silverman, The Wall Street Journal

A bill was introduced in the U.S. Senate late last week that would provide a drug maker with an unprecedented 15 years of data exclusivity for a medicine that meets an unmet medical need. Specifically, this refers to the amount of time during which a generic drug maker would be prevented from using the data generated by a brand-name drug maker to then obtain regulatory approval and sell its own similar medicine.

The demand for drugs in Russian pharmacies grew by 15-20 percent over the past two months

RU.Facts

The demand for drugs in Russian pharmacies grew by 15-20 percent over the past two months compared to the same period in 2013, according to TASS referring to the research of the Centre of Social Economy.