India
Novartis’s APMA chief outlines the company’s tailored approach to deliver long-term outcomes, novel access solutions via innovative financing options and shape the CVD disease ecosystem in the extraordinarily diverse region. Partnering to build AI infrastructure is another key prong.
Indegene’s CTO talks to Scrip about the state of GenAI implementations in pharma amid hype and limited clarity on ROI, the need to address foundational issues early on, promising pilots, the firm’s alliance with Microsoft and Google’s generalist LLM for therapeutics.
Serum Institute is working on an mpox vaccine while other Indian firms are weighing options after the WHO sounded an alert and a new case was reported in neighboring Pakistan. Scrip looks at factors that could favor development and/or manufacture of an mpox vaccine at Indian majors.
Momentum in Europe may see the region’s contribution to Glenmark’s revenues become almost as big as the US business, currently dented by multiple challenges. The firm also outlines how things are poised in India for its biosimilar to Novo Nordisk’s Victoza.
Zydus has begun Phase I trials for an anti-properdin drug in India while its sitagliptin franchise in US, distinct from Merck’s Januvia and Janumet, looks promising. Meanwhile MD Sharvil Patel says a biosimilars entry in developed markets is possible if certain conditions are met.
Biocon maintains it doesn’t expect the US to remain an eight to 10 player market for adalimumab biosimilars for long and also outlines expectations for its GLP-1 portfolio, led by liraglutide, seen as a major growth driver in the coming years.
Lupin’s CEO highlights market access strategy as a key tool to ensure biosimilars success in the US while being relieved the company didn’t launch a Humira biosimilar. She also mentions Amazon and Mark Cuban have not upset market dynamics for generics in the US and a Lucentis biosimilar is closer to a global launch post Phase III trial success
Otsuka Pharma’s acquisition of Jnana seems like a win for its pipeline, but the Japanese major faced a setback in a Delaware District Court where the judge’s opinion put challenger Lupin closer to a generic to its Jynarque (tolvaptan)
Sun’s chief Dilip Shanghvi talks about partnering intent for the firm’s GLP-1 candidate, which he hopes can complete studies in an accelerated timeframe, while legal action in the US has a cast a shadow on launch timelines of the Indian drug maker's alopecia areata treatment.
Strides expects a licensing of Bhami’s formulation technology that enables subcutaneous delivery of biologics to boost associate company OneSource’s CDMO business. Meanwhile, its former CFO has been appointed MD and group CEO amid a US portfolio re-balance
Cipla, which has a healthy cash position, outlines areas of deal interest in India and the US, where sterile injectable sites could be on its radar. The company is also set to tap new frontiers of growth, including in areas such as mental health and obesity.
With an eye-catching $1.6bn deal, Mankind has acquired Bharat Serums and Vaccines to add a high-barrier, specialty business, a credible biologics R&D engine and a complementary portfolio of women’s fertility and health treatments while PE firm Advent finds a profitable exit. What’s next?
Amid deals activity in India, Torrent Pharma executives spelt out their acquisition expectations and licensing strategy while an in-licensed Takeda brand did well in Q1 of FY25. The US growth trajectory is seen determined by five to ten product approvals expected this fiscal
McKinsey & Company’s senior partner and lead, life sciences practice (Asia), talks to Scrip about innovation niches that could interest Indian firms including the ADC space, using AI to increase confidence in research activities and how India could leverage big pharma’s expanding global capability centres (GCCs) to shape the wider R&D ecosystem.
Jeeva’s founder and CEO talks to Scrip about how the firm’s clinical trial management platform does away with the need for numerous point solutions and vendors, enabling sponsors to undertake trials more effectively including in the complex and competitive oncology space.
Growing geopolitical tensions and a slowing Chinese economy are among the topmost concerns for global business leaders across sectors, a McKinsey study has shown. Separately, in pharma, the BIOSECURE Act continues to occupy centre stage with US House Speaker Johnson recently pledging to push China-targeted legislation before House elections in November
IGBA's secretary general, in an interview with Scrip, bolsters the case for enabling single global development of off-patent medicines and the acceptance of foreign comparators in bioequivalence studies as complex and niche therapeutics increasingly dot pharma’s pipeline. The global off-patent industry association, she maintained, is also “paying attention” to patent quality in various regions.
Speaking of an impending launch of new biosimilars, including pembrolizumab, panelists at a recent event in India asked for regulatory easing from a waiver of Phase III trials for biosimilars to a single body for pre-clinical and trial approvals. The chicken and egg question of VC funding also came up.
Leaders from India’s top drug makers discuss efforts to operationalize a world-class skilling institute, backed by tie-ups with organizations like the PDA, ISPE and also taking a leaf out of the automobile industry’s book to build supply chain resilience. They also exuded confidence on moving up the innovation value chain.
Parexel’s chief strategy officer Kushal Gohil, Clinical EVP Stephen Pyke and India head Sanjay Vyas share thoughts on possible hurdles to, and the cascading impact of obesity treatments, GenAI progress and the opportunities and challenges of real-world data in India, in the second of this two-part interview with Scrip.