Proventa’s Weekly Round-up – 10/1/19
3 years ago
By admin
Happy new year! It’s a fairly slow week as the sector takes stock and begins to get back, with annual price rises the main event in the news – big pharma has announced its regular price increases for the new year, and the state of California has stated plans to potentially begin selling generics independently to keep such prices down. In other news, the mind behind the controversial CRISPR twins has received a prison sentence in China, and the CRISPR technology itself has finally seen “promising” first clinical trials.
CALIFORNIA INTENDS TO SELL GENERIC DRUGS TO LOWER COSTS – The state of California has announced plans to become the first U.S. state to independently sell generic drugs. The scheme would hopefully reduce drug prices by contracting with one or more generic manufacturers. California’s governor, Gavin Newsom, will unveil the new state budget today. Further information has yet to be announced.
SCIENTISTS BEHIND CRISPR TWINS GIVEN PRISON SENTENCES – He Jiankui, the central figure behind 2018’s controversial announcement that gene-edited twins had been born in China, has been sentenced to prison alongside two colleagues. Jiankui was given a three-year sentence and fined 3 million yuan for practising medicine without a licence and forging documents. The two other team members received sentences of two years and eighteen months in prison respectively and smaller fines.
NEW YEAR PRICE HIKES ON OVER 200 DRUGS – With the coming of the new year, pharma companies everywhere have announced new price increases. Big pharma price hikes amounted to around 250 drugs, around 50 of which are from Pfizer alone. Most of the branded increases are under 10%, with the median increase around 5%.
In other news:
Clinical Trials
Phase 3 trial for Schizophrenia drug following safety concerns
Promising first trials for CRISPR technology
Manufacturing
Novartis opens new Zolgensma plant with 350 employees
BMS sells manufacturing facility to Catalent
That’s all for now. See you next week!
Joshua Neil, Editor
Proventa International
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