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While true innovation is still a rare currency in China, all but one of these 10 companies have attracted Big Pharma companies buying into their R&D...China has witnessed a biotech boom over the past decade. Many biotech entrepreneurs felt a calling to reshape the drug industry in a country that has long relied on generics with dubious quality, where demand is growing for more innovative drugs to improve treatment outcomes that can match China’s climbing economy...These so-called “sea turtles,” armed with top-notch training from foreign institutions and experience at large multinational biopharma companies, set up their own shops in the hope of creating the next blockbuster drugs out of China...READ MORE

BeiGene
Chi-Med
CStone Pharmaceuticals
Harbour BioMed
Hua Medicine
I-Mab Biopharma
Innovent Biologics
Junshi Biosciences
Legend Biotech
Zai Lab

GlaxoSmithKline is committing to a new environmental plan with two ambitions: eliminate its impact on climate change and neutralize its impact on nature by 2030...In environmental parlance, the goal is a net zero impact on climate change and a net positive impact on nature by the end of the decade...The twofold approach means GSK will reduce its environmental footprint as much as possible—and where it can’t reduce, implement restoration programs—while also contributing more to nature than it takes out...READ MORE

Japanese drugmaker Takeda has quickly emerged as one of the leading forces in the fight against COVID-19 as a vaccine manufacturing partner and R&D lead on a convalescent plasma-based therapy. Now, Takeda will help another biotech distribute its potential COVID-19 vaccine in the drugmaker's home country...Moderna has tapped Takeda to bring 50 million doses of its mRNA-based COVID-19 shots to Japanese shores as part of a government-backed vaccine distribution effort...Takeda will import and distribute Moderna's shot, dubbed mRNA-1273, starting in the first half of next year, as well as handle local regulatory approvals...READ MORE

The Trump administration announced it will cover a vaccine for COVID-19 at no cost to Medicare beneficiaries...The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services released an interim rule on Wednesday that aims to remove regulatory barriers for seniors to get the vaccine, which is expected to be approved by early next year...READ MORE

Brazil’s health regulator halted clinical trials of the potential coronavirus vaccine CoronaVac, citing an “adverse, serious event,” according to a statement it posted to its website Monday night...The potential vaccine is being developed by Chinese biopharmaceutical firm Sinovac and in Brazil would be mostly produced by Sao Paulo’s state-run Butantan Institute. Butantan said in a statement that it was surprised by Anvisa’s decision and that it would hold a news conference Tuesday...The CoronaVac shot has stirred controversy in Brazil, where President Jair Bolsonaro has cast doubt on its prospective effectiveness. He sparked confusion last month when he publicly rejected it, saying Brazilians would not be used as guinea pigs. The declaration followed news that his health minister, Eduardo Pazuello, had agreed to purchase CoronaVac doses produced locally by Butantan...READ MORE

As part of the administration’s campaign to reduce the United States’ reliance on an increasingly global pharmaceutical supply chain and to minimize potential shortages for critical drugs, FDA has published a list of those drugs and medical products considered critical for addressing public health emergencies. The list will provide a basis for bolstering biopharmaceutical production at home of essential medicines and medical products and for addressing supply chain vulnerabilities...READ MORE

Washington, Oregon and Nevada will join California to independently review any coronavirus vaccine before distributing it to the public...Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday that the three states would identify their own public health experts to participate in the scientific review committee he announced last week, which was charged with ensuring that any vaccine approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is safe and effective...California has also formed a second committee to develop guidelines for the ethical distribution of vaccines, Newsom said, addressing questions about who should receive the first doses and how to allocate potentially limited supplies...READ MORE

Pfizer announced positive early results from its coronavirus vaccine trial, cementing the lead in a frenzied global race that has unfolded at record-breaking speed...Pfizer, which developed the vaccine with the German drugmaker BioNTech, released only sparse details from its clinical trial, based on the first formal review of the data by an outside panel of experts...The company said that the analysis found that the vaccine was more than 90 percent effective in preventing the disease among trial volunteers who had no evidence of prior coronavirus infection. If the results hold up, that level of protection would put it on par with highly effective childhood vaccines for diseases such as measles. No serious safety concerns have been observed, the company said...READ MORE

Deaths after flu vaccination keep rising in South Korea. But as local health authorities work to calm concerned citizens by refuting a connection between the two, a fellow Asian country has taken the precautionary measure of suspending two shots given to people who later died...Singapore has temporarily pulled its backing for SK Bioscience’s SKYCellflu Quadrivalent and Sanofi Pasteur’s VaxigripTetra, the Ministry of Health said...READ MORE

Needs in the European Region in order for pharmacy to deliver breakthroughs for better primary health care are described in a new report...The report summarises the key messages from a conference for the European Region, held by FIP in collaboration the Turkish Pharmacists’ Association in 2019, which facilitated mapping and prioritisation of pharmaceutical practice, service, education and workforce development needs in the context of primary health care. At that conference, pharmacy leaders and pharmacists representing 37 countries in the region committed to deliver better primary health care through pharmacy, and the report presents findings of a survey of FIP member organisations conducted between June and September 2020 to evaluate national pharmacy priorities and strategies towards the implementation of that commitment...READ MORE