Over the last 15 years, China and India have become highly competitive manufacturers in the global pharmaceutical chain. But the Covid-19 pandemic has reshuffled all the schemes. It has also exacerbated the risks of shortages of drugs caused by weaknesses in the supply chain for sourcing generic treatments and active pharmaceutical ingredients (API)...

In the race against Covid-19, drug companies are speeding to bring to market a vaccine. Meanwhile, for months, governments from all around the world have been working on supply deals to secure millions of doses of the future vaccines candidates for their citizens.

What does Biogen's future look like? Murky, choppy or not? For the past months, news from the biotech has been rather mixed. Do analysts need to fret about? On the one hand, its treatment against Alzheimer, aducanumab is under FDA review with a decision expected next March. But on the other hand, the company is facing generic competition on one of its main blockbusters Tecfidera, a multiple sclerosis (MS) therapy, more than seven years before the end of the patent protection in the US

Unither Pharmaceuticals, the world leader in sterile unit doses,
launches the acquisition of the Chinese pharmaceutical company:
           Nanjing Ruinian Best Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd.

The pandemic and the economic lockdown severely reduced prescriptions for medicines, doctors or hospitals visits by patients and also delayed uses of innovative treatments. With immediate financial consequences on companies' sales and revenues.

In the race to bring to market a vaccine against Covid-19, drug companies develop various strategies and focus on specific technologies. According to the World Health Organization, 23 coronavirus vaccines were being evaluated in clinical trials around the world at the end of July. Moreover, more than 100 projects were in earlier stages of development.

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic and the desperate search for either a treatment or a vaccine, companies are doing "business as usual" on others therapeutics fields. This is the case of Biogen and partner Eisaï for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

At the halfway point of this year (January to end of June), the FDA has approved 25 new drugs and biological products. That is well above the 18 new arrivals given a greenlight in 2019. But the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic is likely to become more and more evident in the coming months, with delays on several decisions, despite advisory committees going virtual.

As the pandemic still accelerates in several parts of the world (mainly the United States and Latin America, but also in China), vaccine makers face biggest medical challenges for several reasons.

In the race to find either a treatment or a vaccine to fight the Covid-19 pandemic, Gilead obtains accurate results. As time goes by, there is more evidence that its Remdesivir product, originally indicated against Ebola fever, can also help moderately ill patients.
In June, the results from a phase III clinical trial showed that coronavirus patients who were hospitalized, but not sick enough to need oxygen from a ventilator, were more likely to recover after a five-day course of Remdesivir, than those given the current standard of care alone, Gilead said. The study demonstrated that patients in the 5-day Remdesivir treatment group were 65 % more likely to have clinical improvement at day 11 compared with those in the standard of care group.