Susan Haigney

Susan Haigney is lead editor of Pharmaceutical Technology and Pharmaceutical Technology Europe.

Articles by Susan Haigney

INTERPHEX 2013 begins later this month and Pharmaceutical Technology will be previewing the action in the weeks to come.

Developing and maintaining the right labor pool is an ongoing challenge for any industry, and it is one that the pharmaceutical industry also is facing. Recent attention in the pharmaceutical industry has focused on the restructuring that has occurred and that is still occurring among the large pharmaceutical companies.

PharmTech’s February issue will feature a guest editorial by Aaron Davidson, a partner in the life sciences practice at Baker Botts, on social media and the pharmaceutical industry.

A new year has started in the world of pharmaceutical manufacturing and technology, and 2013 looks to bring plenty of innovation.

FDA has pushed back goals in relation to the Prescription Drug User Fee Act (PDUFA), the Biosimilar User Fee Act (BsUFA), and Medical Device User Fee Act (MDUFA) as a result of the closing of agency offices during Hurricane Sandy.

In 2008, adverse affects and deaths linked to Baxter’s blood thinner drug heparin revealed contamination in the heparin supply chain originating from an API manufacturer in China. FDA identified oversulfated chondroitin sulfate (OSCS) in the contaminated heparin.

As a result of the passage of the Generic Drug User Fee Amendments Act, Janet Woodcock, director of the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research, announced her plan to reorganize the Office of Generic Drugs (OGD) into a super office that would include subordinate offices. The new super office would report directly to Director Woodcock, with Greg Geba continuing his role as OGD director.

An upcoming report on India’s pharmaceutical industry in PharmTech (check out the October 2012 issue) discusses India’s strict patent policies and got me thinking about the rights of intellectual property versus patients’ rights to needed medicines.

PhRMA Senior Vice-President Matthew Bennett released a statement today on the state of the biopharmaceutical industry, in response to an analysis in the British Medical Journal.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) will soon be phasing out follow-up measures to marketing authorisations in place of a new system of classification that will be introduced in a stepwise manner.

The European Medicines Agency announced on July 30, 2012, that its efforts to increase interaction and cooperation with regulatory authorities in Japan have paid off. In 2007, confidentiality agreements between the EU and Japan were established for a five-year period to allow for an exchange of information to enhance regulatory and scientific processes

On July 9, 2012, Congress passed the Generic Drug User Fee Act in an effort to expedite the process of bringing generic drugs to market. The Act authorizes the collection of user fees from generic-drug manufacturing companies for the first time in the industry's history.

FDA has updated its website to include the latest Warning Letters issued to pharmaceutical companies by the Office of Prescription Drug Promotion and the Center for Drug Evaluation and Research.

The European Medicines Agency's Committee for Orphan Medicinal Products made recommendations for nine orphan drug designations during its June 2012 meeting. Included in COMP's recommendations were four designation applications for rare forms of lipodystrophy.

The National Institutes of Health have gained the participation of Abbott, Bristol-Myers Squibb, GlaxoSmithKline, Janssen Pharmaceutical Research & Development, and Sanofi in their effort to advance new therapeutic research.