Focus On Asia

Scrip spotlights the action around five key big pharma products in India. We track the gains made by Rybelsus and Keytruda, the wave of Januvia and Ibrance generics and on-market and court action for blockbuster Entresto.

India had a busy deals calendar in 2022, with companies led by Biocon striking large M&A deals while PE activity declined. Scrip pieced together data for infographics on these deals. A multitude of factors is expected to keep the momentum going in 2023

Korea Drug Development Fund CEO H. Samuel Muk talks to Scrip how the government agency has evolved to support the Korean biopharma industry’s R&D and business development activities, as well as what key new projects are underway.

Pfizer’s Ibrance is set to lose exclusivity in the US only by 2027, but the Indian market is buzzing with activity as generics including from top-ranked drug maker Sun Pharma vie for a share of the pie. Competing CDK4/6 inhibitors are already available but can cut-price palbociclib versions alter market dynamics?

From orphan to cancer drugs, more products have had their prices cut in the latest round of reimbursement negotiations in China. Although the 60% average across 100 medicines was considered mild given it didn’t go beyond the previous year, it was still chilling and is prompting more firms, both multinational and domestic, to walk away from the process.

Patent pertaining to Novartis’s Entresto re-instated for now in India after a two-judge bench stays a previous order that set aside the grant of the patent. Will that put Indian firms that launched generic versions of the heart failure therapy at risk of infringement in the interim?

The 2022 pricing negotiations for innovative drugs organized by China’s National Healthcare Security Administration have slashed prices of included products by 60% on average, a level mostly unchanged from the 2021 round, although 36% more novel medicines were covered.

Three Japanese pharma firms say their new joint logistics project will help more efficient distribution to wholesalers, optimize delivery labor in an ageing society and comply with tightening regulations.

After a comparatively subdued 2022 in terms of M&A and other deal-making, a strengthening currency and interest in new areas such as digital tools and cell and gene therapy might see a rebound in activity this year, which should also see domestic approvals of several potential blockbusters and more support for bioventures. 

As Amneal makes its commercial debut in markets outside the US, Shyamakant Giri, MD and president, India and emerging markets, formulates a strategy based on differentiation and a targeted approach. From ‘theranostics’ to partnered products, he has multiple aces up his sleeves, Giri tells Scrip in an interview.

Around the turn of the year, four Chinese biotechs including Kelun Biotech and BioRay ramped up funding with deals worth more than $100m, at a time when overall investment sentiment in the sector remains gloomy.

Recent antibody mega-deals are providing a rare bright spot for the embattled China biotech sector, amid sharply rising COVID-19 deaths in the country that indicate rebound and recovery could take longer than previously expected.