While it was not as affected as some other countries, Japan still had the pandemic to deal with and regulators responded while managing to keep up regular product review work, including several world-first approvals. Coronavirus vaccine roll-outs and the first general annual reimbursement price cut are on the cards for this year. 

Most roads led to India in 2020 when it came to deals to expand access to COVID-19 therapies, but the challenging year also saw significant private equity interest and there are expectations of more action ahead in the new year.

Plus deals involving Lilly/Daiichi Sankyo, Humianigen/KPM Tech, Telix/China Grand, Appili/Fujifilm, BioInvent/CASI, Osotec/Adel, Neumentum/Nuance, Takeda/HemoShear and Quantum Genomics/Qilu.

Strides files for a biosimilar to Eli Lilly’s Forteo (teriparatide) in the EU, marking the beginning of its journey in the biosimilars segment. Meanwhile, it hopes to enter a manufacturing tie-up with COVID-19 vaccine players in H2 while also planning a launch of favipiravir in markets outside India.