July 2017. Major Pharma News Highlights Pill

  • Sun Pharma has appointed Samsung BioLogics to manufacture Tildrakizumab, an investigational IL-23p19 inhibitor being evaluated for the treatment of moderate to severe plaque psoriasis.
  • The Centre has stalled a $1.3-billion bid by Shanghai Fosun Pharmaceutical Group (SFP) to acquire an 86% stake+ in Hyderabad-based Gland Pharma, citing “genuine concerns” over proprietary technology developed by the Indian company going over to a Chinese pharma major.
  • Israeli pharmaceutical company NeuroDerm has been sold to Japanese giant Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma for $1.1 billion in cash,. sale was the largest ever acquisition of an Israeli healthcare company. NeuroDerm is researching and developing solutions for disorders relating to the central nervous system, specifically Parkinson’s disease.
  • The government is contemplating constituting a sub-committee to inquire into working conditions of workers in various factories and also assess safety measures in workplace, especially in chemical and pharmaceutical companies, Minister for Labour, Employment, Training and Factories Pithani Satyanarayana said at a two-day workshop on ‘Chemical Safety and Disaster Mitigation in Pharma Industry Challenges and Opportunities’. The workshop was organised by Department of Factories and AP Pharma Industry.
  • The Competition Commission has dismissed allegations of unfair business practices made against pharmaceutical firm Sanofi India with respect to supply of medicines.
    The complainant, who had sought confidentiality of his identity, had alleged that in order to provide a regular supply of medicines, Sanofi was asking the distributors to provide various documents, including TPDD – Third Party Due Diligence – carried out by an independent agency. The Competition Commission of India (CCI) rejected the complaint after finding that the pharmaceutical firm did not violate Sections 3 and 4 of the Competition Act. While Section 3 relates to anti-competitive agreements, Section 4 deals with abuse of dominant position.
  • The Yamuna Expressway Industrial development authority (YEIDA) has decided to carve out a dedicated sector to set up a pharmaceutical hub. to be developed in Sector 33 is expected to create around 40,000 jobs, officials said.
  • It’s been years since the major pharma companies agreed to participate in the Registry of All Trials. A paper is released in the British Medical Journal reporting on their audit of pharmaceutical companies’ record on keeping that promise.
    What they found is pretty dismal: to put it bluntly, pharma companies are cheating like crazy.
    This is a vital scientific/health question: pharmaceutical companies have spent decades cherry-picking their studies, suppressing those that put their products in a bad light, only telling regulators about the successful ones. About half of all pharmaceutical trials were never reported in.
  • Piramal Enterprises has plans to expand the presence of its pharma vertical in strong global markets such as the US, Europe and Japan.Europe and North America contribute over 70% of the company’s revenue from pharmaceuticals business.
  • The Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI) held its fifth annual HR summit .The participants were drawn together to discuss this year’s theme ‘3D – Future of Pharma’ in the context of the growing importance and impact of diversity, digitalization and design thinking in brands.
  • Officials of drugs control department detected large amount of drugs past their expiry date disposed in a haphazard manner in the bushes on Bondel-Pachchanady Road. The officials who got wind of this illegal act from residents of area ensured that the pharmaceutical distributor to whom the drugs belonged based on the batch numbers not only cleaned up the same, but also issued notices to them for unscientific disposal of drugs in contravention of rules.
  • Russia’s Chelyabinsk region is seeking proposals from Indian pharmaceutical companies looking to set up manufacturing units there with a local partner. Russia is the largest market in the Central and Eastern Europe region .
    Indian manufacturers were keen to know more about tax benefits that the Russian region would offer and the availability of infrastructure facilities for joint venture units.
  • Reflecting the global interest in the South Korean pharma market, CPhI Korea 2017 will see a 13% rise in the number of exhibitor. This surge in international companies wanting to partner in Korea reflects a flourishing South Korean pharma economy, which, in recent years, has become the 3rd largest pharma region in Asia, with a forecasted growth from $18.6 billion in 2016 to $20.4 billion in 2020. A free trade agreement with the US has facilitated investments from multinational companies. The country recently topped the Bloomberg Innovation Index . Innovation and economic free zones are the driving force behind the increased interest from overseas audiences looking to further their business prospects in South Korean pharma.
  • The proposed regulation, Essential Commodities (Control of Unethical Practices in Marketing of Drugs) Order 2017, is expected to be notified soon. The proposed regulation prohibits companies from offering doctors cash, gifts and paid vacations. The penalty for violations could range from penalties to temporary suspension of marketing of a drug.
  • Substandard drugs: India’s strong pharmaceutical sector and 21 major vaccine-manufacturing companies have made it the world’s biggest supplier of quality medicines and vaccines. All the exported drugs meet stringent unified international standards of quality, safety and efficacy. Those that are sold in India do not.Substandard and contaminated drugs killed five women in Hyderabad’s Niloufer Hospital in February. India’s drug regulation laws are strong, but implementation often isn’t.
  • Innov4Sight Health and Biomedical Systems Private Limited, a Bangalore based startup, has inked a strategic licensing deal with MMC Pharmaceuticals. MMC Pharma’s offshoot InnoBioLabs LLP will be investing over $ 300,000 in setting up 10 autologous therapeutic processing labs across Kerala & Tamil Nadu. Innov4Sight will now be following this with similar deals in Madhya Pradesh and a few other States. Innov4Sight started in 2014 to reduce errors, second guesses and improve effective care impacting Fertility & Cancer Care.

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