Stephanie Sutton

GlaxoSmithKline has entered into an agreement to purchase Shenzhen Neptunus? stake in a previously formed joint venture between the companies involved in the development and manufacture of influenza vaccines in China, Hong Kong, and Macau.

The European Public Health Alliance has called for greater pricing transparency, as well as the formation of a public website that provides comparative information on medicines' procurement prices.

Can microdosing make medicines safer and more effective for children?

The pharmaceutical industry has been called to action by a new report that highlights the health and cost repercussions of patient noncompliance.

Following recent accusations that the EMA puts companies' commercial interests ahead of public safety, the EMA has responded by emphasizing recent initiatives at the agency to improve data access.

Amylin Pharmaceuticals has filed a lawsuit against Eli Lilly, alleging that Lilly is engaging in anticompetitive activity and breaching its agreements with Amylin to maximize commercialization of the drug, exenatide.

Alkermes purchased Elan?s Elan Drug Technologies (EDT) unit in a cash and stock transaction worth approximately $960 million. The two companies will be merged into a new holding company in Ireland under the name Alkermes.

Outsourcing can have its benefits, but how often do we bother to measure the actual value of our outsourcing relationships?

The EMA has concluded a class review of bisphosphonates, adopted a number of positives opinions for new medicines and revealed more about the ongoing studies regarding GlaxoSmithKline's Pandemrix pandemic influenza vaccine and a possible link with narcolepsy.

Johnson and Johnson (J&J) has agreed to pay more than $77 million after being charged for violations of the US Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, which include bribing public doctors in several European countries and paying kickbacks to illegally obtain business in Iraq.

sanofi-aventis has gained full control over Genzyme, bringing the much talked about acquisition deal between the two companies to a close.

This week, the European Commission (EC) began a public consultation in relation to a review of the 'Transparency Directive' (89/105/EEC), which concerns the transparency of the pricing and reimbursement of medicines in different EU Member States.

The global market for biosimilars is set to grow from $243 million in 2010 to $3.7 billion in 2015, according to research from Datamonitor, an independent industry analyst company.

Novartis has completed the acquisition of a majority stake in Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical Co., Ltd. — one of the largest privately held vaccines companies in China.

The EMA has announced a pilot program with the FDA for the parallel assessment of Quality by Design applications, as well as a separate project aimed at improving the agency?s core business.

In a press release on Mar. 21, 2011, the EMA Management Board gave its approval for the current activities of former executive director Thomas Lönngren.

Novartis acquired a majority stake in Zhejiang Tianyuan Bio-Pharmaceutical, one of the largest privately held vaccine companies in China. The acquisition gives Novartis an expanded presence in the Chinese vaccine market and will facilitate the introduction of Novartis's vaccines into the country.

Japan has suspended the use of two pediatric vaccines made by Pfizer and sanofi following the deaths of four children in three days.

A number of European public health and transparency campaigners believe that conflict of interest rules may have been breached with the EMA's decision to allow its former Executive Director, Thomas Lönngren, to take up an advisory role within the private pharmaceutical sector.

Ongoing Free Trade Agreement (FTA) negotiations between the EU and India have hit a hurdle as some stakeholders urge the Indian government to fight against certain provisions in the FTA amid fears that access to generic drugs may be affected.

After reviewing further data on the suspected link between cases of narcolepsy and GlaxoSmithKline's pandemic influenza vaccine, Pandemrix, the EMA's Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) is still unable to establish a causal relationship.

An initiative based in the Netherlands aims to bring together universities, pharma companies, international research institutions and product development partnerships to help develop new diagnostic tests and medicines for neglected tropical diseases.

Pharma's manufacturing and supply chain needs a "radical overhaul" because it is underused, inefficient and ill-equipped to cope with new types of products that will be coming to market in the near future, according to a report from PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC).

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According to the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the closure of Pfizer's UK R&D facility, announced last week, is part of a long-term decline in drug development that is affecting all major UK pharmaceutical multinationals.

India is set to become a "biosimilar powerhouse", with manufacturers in this country well placed to capitalize on the growing biosimilars market, according to market analysts at Datamonitor.

According to the UK's Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), the closure of Pfizer's UK R&D facility, announced last week, is part of a long-term decline in drug development that is affecting all major UK pharmaceutical multinationals.

Pfizer is to close a UK R&D facility in Sandwich (Kent), affecting more than 2000 positions, as it seeks to reduce expenditure by realigning its R&D division.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has published its final 'Road map to 2015', a document that sets out the agency's key drivers for progress and strategic vision of operation for the next 5 years.

Taking inspiration from nature, researchers have devised a way of giving drug-bearing polymer vesicles armored protection that could enhance drug delivery.