EuroPharma Today

UK website counterfeit supplier sentenced to prison

A Canadian/Cypriot woman, Norma Ene Ruutel-Glykys, aged 51, has been sentenced to eight months in UK prison for illegally possessing medicines with the intent to market them without a licence, and for possessing controlled drugs with the intent to supply.

Sir James Black, the father of modern pharmacology, dies

The Nobel Prize winner, Sir James Black, who died last week aged 85, discovered novel medicines in two new therapeutic classes – beta-blockers and histamine-antagonists – which underpinned much of the growth of the pharmaceutical industry in the 1970s and 1980s.

 

AstraZeneca Outlines Branded Generics Strategy at Emerging Markets Event

LONDON-AstraZeneca plans to broaden its presence across a wide range of developing markets, including small and mid-sized ones, not only to maximize growth but also to smooth out variations in growth rates across countries and regions, top company executives said in a detailed presentation to analysts on March 16.

Beyond BRIC: ‘Pharmerging’ Markets Loom If Pharma Is To Expand, IMS Study Says

Drug makers need to more aggressively target so-called "pharmerging" markets – but not just the usual suspects. Brazil, Russia, India and China remain highly important, but in a March 16 report, IMS Health predicts that 17 countries, in total, will contribute 48 percent of annual market growth in 2013, up from 37 percent last year.

European Spec Pharma is the Focus for Novo Growth Equity--Again

Less than two weeks after committing its first £40 million ($60 million) to UK-based specialty pharma firm Archimedes, Novo Growth Equity on March 15 announced its second investment—in another European specialty pharma firm. This time it's Sweden's Orexo, a listed group focused on pain and inflammation, to which Novo has committed SEK206 million (about $30 million) through a share purchase and a SEK111 million convertible bond.

Emerging Markets, Biosimilars May Enhance Suitors' Interest In ratiopharm

More than a year after being put up for sale, German generics firm ratiopharm is now said to have three serious suitors: generics giant Teva, Iceland's Actavis and Pfizer.

Prices touted for the company, part of the late industrialist Adolph Merckle's empire, top $4 billion (about €3 billion), or just under two times the company's €1.6 billion 2009 sales. Various reports suggest Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler visited the company's Ulm headquarters March 5, with Teva having made its final bid presentation a few days before, and Actavis a day or two later. Ratiopharm is Germany's second-largest generics firm, behind Novartis' Hexal.

At first glance, it's hard to see why ratiopharm has attracted so much interest. The German generics market has come under serious pricing pressure since the government introduced rebate tender contracts between manufacturers and the country's health insurance funds in 2007 (¹ 'The Pink Sheet' DAILY, Aug. 3, 2009).

Europe's Regulators Concede Dialog With HTAs Is Necessary

They may not like it, but Europe's top regulators are having to accommodate the growing influence of the continent's health technology assessment (HTA) bodies.

Eric Abadie, chairman of Europe's top scientific regulatory body, the European Medicines Agency's Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), initially appeared to reject the idea that the committee should become involved with HTA bodies.

Speaking at the Drug Information Association's 22nd annual EuroMeeting in Monaco on March 8, Abadie argued that CHMP was governed by regulations that explicitly say that marketing authorizations should be based on quality, safety and efficacy, to the exclusion of economic and other considerations. "We will not move from that," he declared.

German Health Minister Attacks Drug Prices With Forced Rebates

German health minister Philipp Roesler has opened fire against the branded drug industry with plans to break the sector's so-called "price monopoly" and force it to negotiate lower prices directly with the country's 200 or so health insurers.

If the industry doesn't, he says in a national press interview, it'll face fixed price ceilings.

The End of Free Drug Pricing in Germany?

According to local press, Germany's health minister Philipp Roesler is about to open fire against the branded drug industry with a proposal to break the sector's so-called 'price monopoly' and force them to negotiate lower prices directly with insurers.

NICE Rejects Vidaza, But Celgene Plans Comparator-Based Appeal

Celgene is preparing to appeal a decision by the UK's National Institute of Clinical Excellence that Vidaza (azacitidine) was too expensive for reimbursement by the UK National Health Service. The drug is approved and reimbursed for patients with a rare form of blood cancer known as higher-risk myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) in over 30 countries.