EMA's Executive Director Prof. G. Rasi kicked out as tribunal annuls appointment

The European Medicines Agency’s Executive Director Prof. Guido Rasi has been forced to step down after his appointment, made three years, was annulled by a EU panel.

Pharmaceutical policy will be developed jointly by two EU Commissioners

Pharmaceutical policy in the new European Commission will be developed jointly by two Commissioners – one for the single market, industry and enterprises, and the other for health, Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker has announced. “Responsibility for medicines and pharmaceutical products will stay with the Directorate-General for Health because I agree with you that medicines are not goods like any other,” the new President told the Members of the European Parliament (MEP) this week,

Dangerous Dietary Supplements Return to Store Shelves

The Food and Drug Administration frequently recalls dietary supplements that are found to contain banned substances. But a new study shows that many of these products return to store shelves months later with the same dangerous ingredients. The findings suggest that health authorities may be fighting an uphill battle against a small number of supplement companies that repeatedly sell contaminated products. The new study, published in JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association, found that out of more than two dozen supplements that were pulled from shelves

ECDC: Epidemiological update of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa

10 Oct 2014 - Epidemiological update of Ebola Virus Disease in West Africa

​Event background information
Chronology of events – key dates

 

22 March 2014: the Guinea Ministry of Health notified WHO about a rapidly evolving outbreak of EVD [1]. The first cases occurred in December 2013. The outbreak is caused by a clade of Zaïre ebolavirus that is related but distinct from the viruses that have been isolated from previous outbreaks in central Africa, and clearly distinct from the Taï Forest ebolavirus that was isolated in Côte d’Ivoire from 1994–1995 [2-4]. The first cases were reported from south-eastern Guinea and the capital Conakry.

Critics applaud EU Commission 'u-turn' on EMA

Shifting EMA oversight to DG Enterprise and Industry will put patients at greater risk of adverse events according to NGO Health Action International which suspects EFPIA "had a hand" in planned European Commission reshuffle. Critics of plans by European Commission President-elect Jean-Claude Juncker to remove oversight for the European Medicines Agency from the Commission’s Health and Consumer Directorate and give it to the Enterprise Directorate have welcomed reports that this move will not now take place.

India-made drugs for poorer nations inferior, says US think tank study

India-made drugs sold in Africa are inferior and of poorer quality than those sold in India and other middle-income countries, alleges a new paper by an US think-tank American Enterprise Institute(AEI), the findings of which were to be announced in a briefing at the Capitol Hill on Wednesday.

European Commission to transfer responsibility for medicines to DG Enterprise

Europe’s research-based pharmaceutical industry association has said that it did not lobby for the new European Commission to remove responsibility for medicines from the Directorate-General for Health and Consumers and give it back to DG Enterprise.

GSK Found Guilty of Bribery in China

GSK.LN in Your Value Your Change Short position                        A Chinese court  found GlaxoSmithKline's  local subsidiary guilty of bribery and fined the company nearly $500 million, capping a scandal that has shaken China's pharmaceutical industry.

Chinese authorities accused GSK of bribing hospitals and doctors, channeling illicit kickbacks through travel agencies and pharmaceutical industry associations — a scheme that brought the company higher drug prices and illegal revenue of more than $150 million between 2009 and 2012. 

Police seize millions in huge fake viagra swoop

Police in several European countries have arrested 12 people and seized millions of euros in assets in a swoop on counterfeit Viagra dealers. Law enforcement authorities in Austria, Belgium, Cyprus, Hungary and the United Kingdom took part in simultaneous operations to stop the distribution of counterfeit, prescription-only medicines (mainly erectile dysfunction pills), the laundering of the related proceeds, and to address the impact of these counterfeit medicines on public health in the European Union.

Ebola vaccine trials fast-tracked by international consortium

A candidate Ebola vaccine could be given to healthy volunteers in the UK, The Gambia and Mali as early as mid-September, as part of a series of safety trials of potential vaccines aimed at preventing the disease that has killed more than 1,400 people in the current outbreak in west Africa. Human trials of this candidate vaccine, being co-developed by the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) and GlaxoSmithKline, are to be accelerated with funding from an international consortium in response to the Ebola epidemic, which the World Health Organization recently declared a public health emergency of international concern.

H Roche μειωνει τις θεσεις εργασίας στην Ισπανια αντισταθμιζοντας την μειωση τιμων στα προϊόντα της

Η Roche παρουσίασε ενα σχεδιο αναδιάρθρωσης της επιχειρηματικής της δραστηριότητας στην Ισπανία, το οποίο θα επηρεάσει δεκάδες θέσεις εργασίας. Το σχεδιο έρχεται να αντισταθμίσει την  καθοδική πορεία των πωλήσεων καθώς και τη μείωση τιμών  των προϊόντων της, στην Ισπανική αγορά.

Device that Detects Counterfeit Drugs Gets Grant

PharmaChk, a new portable anticounterfeiting device, has received a $2 million transition-to-scale grant from Saving Lives at Birth: A Grand Challenge for Development. PharmaChk is being developed in conjunction with researchers at Boston University (BU) to detect and quantify active ingredients in medicines. According to the United States Pharmacopeial Convention (USP), the device has the potential to revolutionize how pharmaceutical industry players in the supply chain around the world detect poor-quality drugs. The grant will further the development of the new device and bring it closer to commercial production.

129 Public health and Medical authorities urge WHO to investigate the safety of e-cigarettes

This month 129 public health officials and medical experts from across 31 countries and from institutions as varied as the University of Hawaii to the UK Faculty of Public Health have written to the Director General of the World Health Organization, urging for more evidence-based regulation when it comes to Electronic Nicotine Delivery Systems (ENDS), more commonly known as e-cigarettes. Below you may find the letter

ITH Pharma linked to the death of a baby

The manufacturer of a hospital feed "strongly linked" to the death of one baby and illness of 17 others has said it is "saddened" by what has happened. ITH Pharma managing director Karen Hamling said it was co-operating fully with an inquiry by health officials.

India - cGMP implementation: From philosophy to practice

In the pharmaceutical industry the basic responsibility of the manufacturer is to provide the drugs which are of the intended quality standard, and are safe and effective. In order to ensure consistency of the quality of drugs, it is necessary that they are produced by strict adherence to the current Good Manufacturing Practices (GMPs). The Indian pharma industry has made remarkable progress in the global market with several achievements to its credit. It prides in being the third largest manufacturer of

Κανόνες επιχειρηματικότητας: Το μεγάλο ψάρι τρώει το μικρό;

Η μετοχή της φαρμακευτικής εταιρείας AstraZeneca αυξήθηκε περισσότερο από 14% τη Δευτέρα, μετά την επιβεβαίωση του ενδιαφέροντος της  Pfizer για εξαγορά. Η εταιρία με βάση τη Νέα Υόρκη επιβεβαίωσε ότι έκανε προσφορά $76,62 ανά μετοχή στην AstraZeneca τον Ιανουάριο - ένα premium της τάξης του 30% με βάση την τιμή κλεισίματος της μετοχής της AstraZeneca στις 3 Ιανουαρίου 2014 και την αποτίμηση της εταιρείας στα  $ 98,9 δισεκατομμύρια.

"ΚΑΤΙ ΣΑΠΙΟ ΥΠΑΡΧΕΙ ΣΤΟ ΒΑΣΙΛΕΙΟ ΤΗΣ BLOGΟΚΡΑΤΙΑΣ".

Αναδημοσιευση επιστολής συνδελφου:

 

Εχει περασει μια εβδομαδα περιπου απο την ημερα που πηρα "κοκκινη καρτα"απο το "συνιστολογιο των φαρμακοποιων",με αφορμη την ερωτηση που εκανα στους διαχειριστες για το post του συναδελφου Δ.Λυκουρεση που αφορουσε ενδεχομενη"απεργοσπασια" μελους του Δ.Σ του ΦΣΑ.

Tamiflu & Relenza: how effective are they?

Today we found out that Tamiflu doesn't work so well after all. Roche, the drug company behind it, withheld vital information on its clinical trials for half a decade, but the Cochrane Collaboration, a global not-for-profit organisation of 14,000 academics, finally obtained all the information. Putting the evidence together, it has found that Tamiflu has little or no impact on complications of flu infection, such as pneumonia. 

Greece’s health crisis: from austerity to denialism

H οικονομική κρίση στην Ελλάδα έχει επιδεινωθεί παρά την διάσωση της χώρας από τη διεθνή κοινότητα το 2010. Η χώρα υπέστη την έκτη συνεχόμενη χρονιά οικονομικής συρρίκνωσης το 2013, με την οικονομία της να μειώνεται κατά 20% μεταξύ του 2008 και του 2012, και με πρόβλεψη για αναιμική ή μηδενική ανάπτυξη το 2014. Η ανεργία υπερτριπλασιάστηκε, από 7,7% το 2008 σε 24,3% το 2012, και η μακροχρόνια ανεργία έφθασε το 14,4%. Ο παρακάτω συνδεσμος (link) αφορα σε ένα επιστημονικό άρθρο, που δημοσιεύτηκε στο έγκριτο περιοδικό Lancet στις 22 Φεβρουαρίου 2014, που ανασκοπεί το ιστορικό της κρίσης, αξιολογεί πώς τα μέτρα λιτότητας έχουν επηρεάσει την υγεία του ελληνικού πληθυσμού και την πρόσβασή τους στις

Συγκλονιστική επιστολή από Έλληνα γιατρό του Imperial College

Μια συγκλονιστική επιστολή απέστειλε στον υπουργό Υγείας Άδωνι Γεωργιάδη, ο Διευθυντής Ουρολογίας στο Imperial College Ευάγγελος Μαζάρης μέσω της ιστοσελίδας Ygeianet. Ο κ. Ε. Μαζάρης, παρών στην ομιλία του υπουργού Υγείας, εξηγεί με τον πιο απλό τρόπο πως διώχνει η Ελλάδα τα παιδιά της, ενώ αναφέρεται και στην προκλητική συμπεριφορά του υπουργού Υγείας.

Medicines Made in India Set Off Safety Worries

 India, the second-largest exporter of over-the-counter and prescription drugs to the United States, is coming under increased scrutiny by American regulators for safety lapses,  falsified drug test results and selling fake medicines.

Dr. Margaret A. Hamburg, the commissioner of the United States Food and Drug Administration, arrived in India this week to express her growing unease with the safety of Indian medicines because of “recent lapses in quality at a handful of pharmaceutical firms.”

FDA prohibits Ranbaxy’s Toansa, India facility from producing and distributing drugs for the U.S. market

Indian drugmaker Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd faces long delays and high costs in launching big-selling generic drugs in the United States after products from a fourth plant were banned from entering its main market due to manufacturing violations.

ΕΟΦ: ‘Τρικλοποδιά’ στις εξαγωγές φαρμάκων

Παράγοντες της αγοράς επισημαίνουν πως το υπουργείο Υγείας ετοιμάζεται να βάλει ‘τρικλοποδιά’ σε εξαγωγές εγχωρίως παραγομένων φαρμάκων, τα οποία για λόγους αγοράς και μόνο, δεν έχουν μερίδιο πωλήσεων στην Ελλάδα. Θυελλώδης αναμένεται η αυριανή σύσκεψη της Επιτροπής Τιμών Φαρμάκων του υπουργείου Υγείας, εξαιτίας των λαθών που υπάρχουν στην επεξεργασία των στοιχείων των τιμών των φαρμάκων.