Focus On Asia

CEO of Chinese vaccine developer BravoVax shares views with Scrip on pandemic lessons learned and new approaches needed to move forward.

Immuneel’s COO, Dr Arun Anand, talks to Scrip about how things are shaping for the Indian start-up’s autologous CD19 directed CAR-T cell therapy and the ‘journey to be traversed’ on the pricing front. He believes India could potentially see cell therapies being commercialized in the next 12 to 18 months.

Favored by venture capital funds, Silicon Valley Bank has served biotech firms conducting transactions in the US. But its collapse is generating a ripple effect on Chinese start-ups already hard hit by a funding crunch.

Dong-A ST’s president of R&D Jae-Hong Park talks to Scrip about the changes needed in the domestic pharma sector and wider industry if Korean biopharma firms are to step up to global levels.

Chinese pharma companies are continuing to pile into the already overcrowded domestic anti-PD-1/L1 sector in China, but despite the competition and regulatory tightening, the latecomers are looking for opportunities in areas such as cervical and small cell lung cancer with relatively fewer contenders.

China's just-concluded National Congress elected new senior government leadership, but shifting top-level policy priorities and a worsening wider operating environment mean observers are worried about continued growth and ongoing pressures on drug pricing.

KIMCo CEO Kevin Kyunghwa Huh talks about the consortium's efforts to become a platform of collaboration for Korean pharmas, including plans for the latest joint investment project as well as how the domestic industry is evolving in terms of globalization and open innovation.

Previously jailed gene editing scientist Jiankui He was absent from a recent international genome editing summit, but his renewed activities are generating new concerns five years after the Chinese researcher shocked the world by announcing the birth of gene-edited babies.  

Sino Biopharm's $161m all-cash acquisition of F-star has finally closed amid heightening US-China tensions and following completion the Chinese firm, through its UK subsidiary invoX, plans to expand its operations and presence at F-star’s UK headquarters.

Chugai is starting to implement a new digital platform at manufacturing sites in Japan that it says will improve efficiency and flexibility. 

Big pharma executives discuss the transformative potential of the metaverse in the life sciences segment and how things are shaping in the virtual world amid the hype. GSK’s senior VP and chief technology officer outlines to Scrip gains made deploying digital twins and bots.

Speakers from BMS, Takeda, UNICEF and more discussed how a shift in R&D focus, free flow of data on animal and human health, public sector investment and higher regulatory flexibility are key to make ‘One Health’ work and prevent future pandemics