Fears U.S. President Donald Trump could damage the drugs industry have not been realized and the administration’s efforts to accelerate new medicine approvals will bolster the sector, the chairman of Swiss drugmaker Roche said.
“The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) wants to trim the time it takes for drugs to be approved,” Christoph Franz told Swiss newspaper Blick in an interview published on Friday.
“European regulators, when it comes to approving new medicines, are lagging the Americans by around six to 12 months. Europe has some catching up to do.”
FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb, whom Trump brought in, aims to approve drugs based on very early data if they show a possible survival benefit, among other measures to get medicines on the market faster.
After he was elected, Trump blasted drug companies, saying they had been “getting away with murder” with high prices.
While the Trump administration has since sought to change how hospitals are reimbursed for some drugs, his selection of Gottlieb, with deep ties to the drug industry, eased worries that he would seek a confrontation.
“Fears that Trump would damage the pharmaceuticals branch have not been realized,” Franz, who was in Davos for the World Economic Forum meeting, told Blick in the interview.
“It’s quite the opposite. We see new opportunities.”
By John Miller
Source: Reuters
CureVac and the University of Texas’s MD Anderson Cancer Center have announced a co-development and licensing agreement to develop novel messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA)-based cancer vaccines. The strategic collaboration will focus on the development of differentiated cancer vaccine candidates in selected haematological and solid tumour indications with high unmet medical needs.
FUJIFILM Corporation is planning to invest $1.2 billion to expand the planned FUJIFILM Diosynth Biotechnologies manufacturing facility in Holly Springs, North Carolina, US. This news follows the organisation’s announcement of a $2 billion investment in the facility in March 2021. This additional financial boost totals the investment to over $3.2 billion, FUJIFILM confirmed.
Sanofi’s global restructuring and downsizing is now fully underway, with layoffs stretching to the company’s Belgian offices. Belgian newspaper De Tijd reports that 67 employees have been laid off at a site in Ghent and 32 jobs are on the chopping block at Sanofi’s Belgium HQ in Diegem.
