CATEGORIES

“Push for digital-enabled care ecosystems to solve healthcare problems”

Singapore headquartered QuEST, a leading global product engineering and lifecycle services company, has been working with some of the world’s leading Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEMs) and Tier1 suppliers in the Medical Devices domain, as their trusted thinking partner of choice, for the past two decades. This includes organizations based out of North America, Europe, and the Asia Pacific. In the recent past, the Medical Devices engineering team at QuEST had developed an AIPowered Diagnostic Solution to enable healthcare professionals accelerate the screening of COVID-19 patients with pneumonia symptoms. The solution, that uses advanced deep learning models, is deployed on the cloud to identify chest X-rays of patients with COVID-19. Backed by Microsoft Azure Machine Learning, the solution has an accuracy of more than 95 per cent. BioSpecctrum spoke to James Gallo, Head – New Business Development, QuEST Global, USA about the global market trends for medical devices and challenges before the market.

“Our plant 4 will have the world's largest biomanufacturing capacity”

Samsung Biologics, a fully integrated contract development and manufacturing organization (CDMO), offering state-of-the-art contract development, manufacturing, and laboratory testing services, has officially begun construction of its plant 4 in Incheon, South Korea. This is part of its long-term strategy to maximize its operational efficiency and scale up its development and manufacturing capabilities in response to growing biomanufacturing demands. In addition, the company has expanded its global footprint with opening of new San Francisco CDO R&D Center. BioSpectrum Asia reached out to Courtney Garcia, Senior Global PR Specialist, Samsung Biologics for further updates. Edited excerpts;

Takeda expands COVID-19 vaccine supply in Japan

Japanese firm Takeda Pharmaceutical has announced that it will import and distribute 50 million doses of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine candidate, mRNA-1273, starting in the first half of 2021, pending licensure in Japan.

“Digital transformation is becoming strategic imperative for companies to be competitive”

Thermo Fisher Scientific is continuously working to expand global capacity and capabilities across its leading pharma services network to support customers in government, industry and academia as they accelerate development and production of COVID-19 vaccines, therapies and other treatments. Amit Chopra, Managing Director, India and Middle East, Thermo Fisher Scientific, India recently spoke to BioSpectrum Asia about the company’s plans in the post COVID-19 era. Edited excerpts;

“Opyl is seeking to solve PR&WD points of trial failure by applying PA and AI”

A real world data is a boon to improve health and wellness. Optimising data assets through digital activation can advance healthcare technologies. Opyl, an Australian health data analytics company enables biopharma and health organisations to access emerging AIassisted technologies with its professional guidance to improve healthcare design, development and delivery. Leveraging social media, the team is assisting patients, healthcare providers and researchers in mining social media data insights (with informed consent) using AI applications. This has been particularly important during COVID-19, as Opyl noted a 188 per cent increase in pandemic-related clinical and research findings being discussed and shared by medical researchers on social media channels. In an interaction with BioSpectrum Asia, Michelle Gallaher, CEO of Opyl, Australia with expertise on healthcare marketing, data science and knowledge on social media health trends shared more professional guidance based on predictive analytics (PA) for improvised healthcare deliveries. Edited excerpts;

The ESRD crisis in Singapore

In Singapore – where the crude incidence rate of late-stage chronic kidney disease has been rising – there are more people in the country, who must be especially concerned about maintaining social distancing. This is a particular conundrum for ESRD patients, who need to visit dialysis centres for treatment.

Managing Diabetes The Figital Way!

The COVID-19 pandemic has posed several new challenges and an opportunity to transform diabetes care with digital innovation. Looking ahead, technology will play a greater role in diabetes treatment and management once lockdowns ease.

Covid-19 Linked Maladies Startling Researchers

Although millions of people have recovered from the coronavirus worldwide, beating the initial sickness appears to be the first of many battles for those who have survived. The list of gnawing maladies associated with COVID-19, such as heart diseases, liver injuries, brain damage, anosmia etc., is surely of a huge concern for the world.

“Chinese pharmaceutical market is growing rapidly and is now a key market for western companies”

Belgium based Bone Therapeutics recently announced its entry in China through partnership with Link Health and Pregene for ALLOB, its off-the-shelf, Allogeneic Osteoblastic Cell Therapy platform. In an email interaction with BioSpectrum, Stefanos Theoharis, Chief Business Officer (CBO), Bone Therapeutics, United Kingdom tells us more about the company, their strategy for China and the impact of COVID-19 on their firm. Edited excerpts;

The Dragon beckons big pharma

Big pharma continues its fascination with China. The latest big pharma firm to push deeper into the country is the US based Pfizer, with its $200 million acquisition of CStone, a firm focused on cancer therapies. Most big pharma firms such as Amgen, USA and AstraZeneca, UK who have historically focused on mature markets such as the United States, Japan and Europe, are now eyeing China. Let’s explore this shift and what it means for the Chinese pharma industry.

APAC's 5G ambitions in Healthcare

The surge in virtual healthcare has prompted physicians globally to engage in co-sharing their medical space and expertise. And Internet-of-Things (IoT) is driving next-generation smart healthcare. Boosted by advances in robotics, IoT and Artificial Intelligence, healthcare organisations across the globe have started using 5G network that promises to provide essential levels of connectivity to enable a new health ecosystem, which will align with a relatively recent idea known as 4P medicine—that is, it will be predictive, preventative, personalised and participatory, as noted by PwC.

India Develops Viral Sequence Predictor To Counter Covid-19

Researchers at the National Institute of Technical Teachers’ Training and Research (NITTTR), Kolkata, India have developed a web-based COVID- Predictor to predict the sequence of viruses online on the basis of machine learning and analyzed 566 Indian SARS-CoV-2 genomes to find the genetic variability in terms of point mutation and Single Nucleotide Polymorphism (SNP).

China Leads The Coronavirus Vaccine Race

Of the nine leading candidate that are under Phase III trial for the novel coronavirus in the world, five are from China- a most from any country. China has emerged as a leader in the novel coronavirus vaccines, a development that will enhance it as a global power but also raises concerns over safety and efficacy of the vaccine. Let’s look into the pros and cons of its leadership in the COVID-19 vaccine.

“Indian companies are moving from API manufacturing to Formulations”

The COVID-19 pandemic has unlocked several opportunities for the life sciences sector in India. And in response to this, the sector has taken the right plunge. KPMG’s new report on ‘Site selection for life sciences in Asia’ reveals the true potential has India possess. In an interview, Sanjay Singh, Partner – Deal Advisory, Head of Lifesciences, KPMG, India expounds on the key findings of this study and shares insights on key market drivers. Edited excerpts;

‘‘We are planning to deliver products with better efficiency for APAC customers''

Francis Van Parys, Vice President Commercial, Asia Pacific, Cytiva, South Korea

E-PHARMACIES IN INDIA, MUCH MORE THAN COMMERCE

Amazon, Reliance and Flipkart v/s the others… The question is who will win? Will this pitting of wits drive new innovations in healthcare delivery and add value to customers?

“We are committed to fast-tracking innovation and transformative care to patients”

Thomas Willemsen, Senior Vice President, Takeda Pharmaceuticals, APAC, Singapore

Securing India's pharma industry from Cyber Risk

Increasing production in pharma manufacturing implies a higher convergence of IT and OT systems. While convergence between IT and OT brings about efficiency, it also expands the attacks surface. The only way to make this work safely is to have a unified, risk-based view of the IT and OT environments.

“We are investing in larger cleanrooms, better QA vision systems, and more technical expertise”

Oliver Healthcare Packaging, one of the leading providers of sterile barrier flexible packaging for the global healthcare industry, emphasize on custom engineered design of Sterile Barrier System (SBS) to meet medical innovations and packaging technologies. Oliver Healthcare with its state-of-the-art manufacturing facility, expanding global SBS manufacturing footprint to Asian market. Mike Benevento, President & CEO, Oliver Healthcare Packaging, Princeton, New Jersey, USA, further elaborates on the critical role of SBS and its significance as integral part of Asia Pacific (APAC) MedTech industry. Edited excerpts;

Connecting the Dots

As the coronavirus pandemic rages across the globe, compounded by lockdowns, quarantine, and social distancing measures, many are turning to digital health.

Time To Look For 2nd Gen Vaccines

Most pharmaceutical companies, across the world, are working at a breakneck speed to develop a vaccine for the novel coronavirus. Some companies are concerned that these vaccines may not be particularly effective in preventing COVID-19 infections in the long-term. This has evoked the need in them to develop improved, next-generation vaccines against the novel coronavirus. BioSpectrum discusses this next phase of vaccine development and if it’s too early to think about the second generation when we don’t even have the first ready yet.

Simulating Technology Solutions To Fight Covid-19

Use of engineering simulation technology is common in the global healthcare industry. US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) & European regulatory agencies are encouraging the healthcare companies to use Computer Modeling & Simulation (CM&S) to aid the approval process for medical devices and achieve quality by design in pharmaceutical manufacturing.

“Value of research conducted within academic institutions will be better appreciated in future”

Founded in 2009, Melbourne-based Affinity Biosciences, whose key focus is on discovering antibodies for cancer therapeutics, is now working on antibodies for COVID-19.

“We are speeding up distribution of IFN-β-1a in Singapore for COVID-19 management”

One of the first companies to partner with Gilead to manufacture remdesivir for COVID-19 treatment, Singapore headquartered SRS Life Sciences is currently working on multiple projects to combat this pandemic. Suchet Rastogi, Chief Executive Officer, SRS Life Sciences spoke to BioSpectrum Asia and revealed the major steps being taken by the company currently. Edited excerpts;

WHO on the centre stage

The COVID-19 pandemic, with Wuhan in China as its epicenter has wreaked havoc worldwide on a monumental scale. Nations of the world were caught unawares and so was the World Health Organization (WHO). It would seem that this globally active organization has not been able to lead the world in response to the pandemic. While some countries have been trying to fight and contain the spread on their own terms, many countries rely on the WHO for its experience in handling pandemics in the past. The United States of America, and particularly President Donald Trump has been a vocal critic of the WHO. We will take a look at how the global organization has handled previous epidemics and whether its criticism is warranted.

LianBio – accelerating availability of paradigm-shifting medicines for Asian markets

New and dynamic companies are being formed to bridge the gap between global innovation and the China market and accelerate access to innovative new drugs from the US, Europe and elsewhere that address unmet patient needs. LianBio from China is one such company having mission to provide access to the best science-driven therapeutic discoveries to patients in China and major Asian markets.

Invest in building agile supply chains

The current pandemic has significantly disrupted the global economy, not to mention business continuity for many companies.

INDIAN PHARMA PRODUCING COVID - 19 DRUGS FOR MASSES

Known for its expertise in manufacturing and supplying quality generic drugs, Indian pharma sector is currently using the generic tool as a critical arsenal in the fight against COVID–19. At present, there are around 25 different drugs brands available in the Indian market to treat the COVID-19 patients, with many more in the pipeline.

Intellectual Property in doldrums

Governments around the globe have been waiving common Intellectual Property (IP) laws for the treatment of COVID-19, which has adversely impacted the world. This has become a matter of concern for pharmaceutical firms, who are fiercely protective of their IP. BioSpectrum Asia delves into IP during the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on pharma innovation.

BIO Asia–Taiwan 2020: 1,400 delegates, 450 exhibitors take part in 5-day event

As the world is facing the unprecedented challenge of COVID-19, biomedical companies, emerging startups, MNC’s are being cooperative and rallying together to accelerate the development of therapeutics, diagnostics and vaccine to fight the global and regional healthcare crisis.