Last November, GlaxoSmithKline topped the Access to Medicine Index for the third year running, commended for its equitable pricing policy in emerging markets and a pro-access approach to licensing and patents.
You can be forgiven for feeling puzzled – the ranking marks a big turnaround for a company which little more than a decade ago was public enemy number one in Africa and elsewhere. How did that happen? Continue reading »
Guest Post: Russia has the right prescription for pharma companies
By Ruud Dobber of AstraZeneca
The recent social unrest in Russia has been pervasive and well publicised, resurrecting the western typecast of Russia as a risky place to do business. Even veteran international investors, who should know better, have grown bearish about binding their profits to Russia. This would be a mistake.
The country still has enormous potential and is one of the few growing markets in what is a predominantly barren global economy. There is good cause for foreign businesses in Russia to be optimistic, not least in pharmaceuticals. Continue reading »
Russia: healthy start for MD Medical
Another Russian equity offering gets away smoothly in London – good for Russia and for the City.
Offered at $12, MD Medical Group’s global depositary receipts rose on Friday to trade around 2 per cent up on their first morning. The company’s $311m offer was a modest morsel for the market in comparison with the $5.1bn heavyweight share sale carried out last month by Sberbank, Russia’s biggest bank. But it shows that, with the right company at the right price, investors are ready to buy Russia. Continue reading »
MDMG: cashing in on IPO rebirth
By Ben Aris of business new europe
Russia’s leading private healthcare company MD Medical Group is hoping to cash in on growing enthusiasm for Russian equity with an October IPO to raise more than $150m, which it will use to continue its rapid expansion.
MDMG plans a London listing in October in two parts. A $150m primary issue of 30 per cent of the company as global depositary receipts will be offered. There will also be a secondary issue of existing shares at the same time, the size of which has yet to be decided, but could be “significant,” according to a source close to the deal. Continue reading »
The myths about China pharma
Big pharma often waxes lyrical about why it makes sense to do more and more R&D in China: the size of the market; the need to be close to that market (and learn about the diseases that affect it particularly badly); and the local talent pool.
According to a study out this week from McKinsey, Healthcare in China, 80 per cent of global life science groups will be conducting R&D in China and other emerging markets by 2016. But it’s worth debunking a few of the myths about Chinese pharma R&D. Continue reading »
Gulf countries confront bulging waistlines
This Ramadan, Gulf residents received text messages with fasting tips to caution against overeating. The problem of expanding waistlines, however, is far from seasonal.
Kuwait, Qatar, The United Arab Emirates and Bahrain all figure on the list of the world’s top ten most obese nations. Seventy-seven per cent of Kuwaitis are overweight and 34 per cent are obese, putting the tiny country just behind the US, according to the latest research based on UN and World Health Organization data.
But as the obesity epidemic spread across the Persian Gulf, so too has another American phenomenon – the rise of the weight loss cottage industry. Continue reading »
Emerging market pharma spending to nearly double by 2016
Emerging markets will nearly double their spending on medicine over the next five years from $194bn in 2011 to $345-375bn in 2016, say healthcare analysts at IMS Health in a report on Thursday.
The Global use of Medicines: Outlook through 2016, says the expected rise comes from a combination of increasing income levels, the increased affordability of medicines and the roll-out of government healthcare programmes for poorer patients. Continue reading »
Redesigning healthcare in Africa
The world’s shortest life expectancy, largely caused by communicable and parasitic diseases stamped out in the developed world; two thirds of the global burden of HIV/Aids; widespread lack of clean water, sanitation and nutrition; rising rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, hypertension, obesity and cancer – any one of Africa’s healthcare challenges would be daunting in isolation. Together, they are all but overwhelming.
How to respond? The Economist Intelligence Unit has some suggestions. Continue reading »
EM healthcare costs: rising fast
The rising costs of pensions and healthcare are challenges not limited to the developed world. As a report from Standard & Poor’s shows, the biggest likely increases in these budgets over the coming decades won’t come in the US, western Europe or Japan – but in Russia, Brazil and South Korea.
Policymakers have no easy answers – anywhere: emerging market governments probably have a bit more room for manoeuvre than their rich-world rivals but not a lot. Continue reading »
China’s latest shortage: blood
While China gobbles up resources around the world, there’s one thing it can’t get enough of: plasma.
Last month Chen Zhu, Beijing’s minister of health, rang the alarm about a nationwide shortage of blood – which is no surprise to Chinese patients who often have to round up relatives and friends to donate for their operations. State television recently ran a story suggesting that patients should donate their own blood to mitigate problems getting the plasma they need for surgeries – though the state broadcaster admitted that hospitals would not be able to store the blood if they did so. Continue reading »
Slovakia: not so flinty after all
Central Europeans are supposed to be the stalwart belt-tighteners of the European Union. Witness Latvia’s grim acceptance of tough economic times, which even saw the government re-elected after presiding over brutal cutbacks. But patience at last appears to be wearing thin, as can be seen by a doctors’ protest in Slovakia. Continue reading »
Ranbaxy’s relief after FDA approval
Shares of India’s biggest pharmaceutical company, Ranbaxy Laboratories, opened up 10.4 per cent on Thursday, following news that it had received FDA-approval to market its generic version of Pfizer’s anti-cholesterol drug, Lipitor.
The approvals on Wednesday came at the last moment, just one day before Ranbaxy would be legally allowed to sell the drug, which is expected to generate $500m-$600m in sales for the company in the next six months. Continue reading »
Samsung diversification going awry
Samsung Group’s new businesses appear to be going awry. Samsung Electronics, the group’s flagship company, is considering taking over its light-emitting diode (LED) joint venture with affiliate Samsung Electro-Mechanics as the LED business suffers from slowing demand for TVs. Continue reading »
Argentina: brother, can you spare some healthcare?
Perhaps unsurprisingly in a country where inflation has been firmly entrenched in double digits for the past four years and is expected to top 25 per cent this year, Argentines are increasingly struggling to fund their healthcare. Continue reading »
India: come with a firm mind, strong constitution – and malaria pills
The human cost of doing business in India has been known to multinational employers for centuries.
Niall Ferguson, the Harvard historian in his book titled “Empire” describes how in the days of the British East India Company fortunes and careers were made in India. Continue reading »
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