Health
Q&A with Julia Spencer, MSD: Global Diffusion of Molnupiravir
Innovation Council sat down with Julia Spencer, Associate Vice President for Global Multilateral Engagement & Strategic Alliances at MSD, to discuss the development, manufacture, and broad global diffusion of the company’s COVID-19 therapeutic, molnupiravir. The interview touches on a range of topics, including the risks taken by innovators to scale manufacturing as rapidly as possible, voluntary licensing and the establishment of global production networks to ensure adequate global supply, the critical importance of demand forecasting, and factors such as lack of testing that impacted the uptake of molnupiravir in some countries.
Evolution of the Vaccine Industry in the Asia-Pacific Region
Merck Life Science has released a paper on trends in vaccine manufacturing in the Asia Pacific Region. The paper includes research from interviews with nearly forty industry executives, plus interviews from research institutes in ten different countries. The COVID pandemic highlighted the potential of mRNA vaccines, with 87% of respondents looking to focus on mRNA vaccines as a critical modality in the future. Furthermore, survey respondents cited process development and technology transfer expertise as key needs when adopting new technology. Merck Life Science considers that it will be some time before mRNA becomes the dominant modality, given the need for production processes and the regulatory landscape to evolve in the meantime. The company expects that most vaccine producers will want to have capabilities relating to multiple vaccine modalities, as they invest to expand facilities and incorporate bioprocessing 4.0.
Click here to read the full paper.
Moderated Discussion with Geneva Delegates: Insights from Biomanufacturing Experts
Innovation Council recently hosted an insightful webinar with leaders in biologics manufacturing and R&D from emerging markets.
The speakers, Syed Ahmed from TechInvention, Charlie Nemugumoni from AVMI and Rajinder Suri from DCVMN drew on lessons from COVID-19 and practical experience to discuss how to reinforce global biomanufacturing R&D networks for overall healthcare delivery as well as pandemic preparedness.
Thank you to the speakers for an informative and exciting discussion!
Why Voluntary Licensing is Best for Increasing Access to Medicines
The Geneva Network recently published analysis about the benefits from voluntarily licensing in the health space. The author argues that voluntary licensing was crucial during COVID-19, aiding the quick and large scale production of vaccines and therapeutics. Overall, it is noted that voluntary licensing can enable long term knowledge transfer, cooperation between companies, and increased flexibility and speed in the innovation process.
Click here to read the full story.
EU Global Health Strategy
The Commission adopted on November 30 a new EU Global Health Strategy to improve global health security and deliver better health for all in a changing world. The Strategy positions global health as an essential pillar of EU external policy, a critical sector geopolitically and central to EU strategic autonomy.
Click here to read more.
Building Greater Resilience in Vaccine Manufacturing – McKinsey & Company
Preparing for the next pandemic is a priority for many national public-health leaders and requires them to lay the groundwork to mount an effective vaccine response.
Decision makers could set the stage for vaccine resilience by defining what their countries and regions need; assessing the local capacity to scale production of vaccine doses; identifying gaps and weaknesses in their national and regional vaccine value chains.
Read the full article here.
IC Member Afya Rekod to Simplify Access to Medical Records Through Strategic Collaboration
GE Healthcare and Kenya-based start-up and IC member, Afya Rekod, have announced a strategic collaboration that seeks to transform care delivery through improved access to personal health data and medical records in Kenya, Nigeria, and South Africa.
The partnership will give patients access to their health history and personal records, including radiological images, by enabling hospitals and diagnostic centers to host health records securely on one platform through a digital application.
Click here for more information.
Experts discuss IP commercialisation, barriers to domestic innovation at 4th Annual IP Dialogue
Experts and Participants discussed support for intellectual property (IP) commercialization, challenges in fighting the global pandemic, barriers to domestic innovation, and the “next generation” of IP policy discussions in the digital economy at the 4th Annual IP Dialogue.
The US Chamber of Commerce’s Global Innovation Policy Center (GIPC) and US India Business Council, in partnership with the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI), virtually convened government and industry leaders for the final session of its 4th annual IP Dialogue. Although the global pandemic continues to affect millions, this year’s dialogue proved to be incredibly impactful, with IP playing such a key role in efforts to study and combat the ongoing global pandemic.
University to help health practitioners find innovative solutions to healthcare challenges
The growing challenges on healthcare systems around the world has inspired researchers at the University of Bath to devise an online course to help healthcare practitioners spot opportunities for innovation in their organisations, and put ideas into practise.
The free online course, known as a MOOC (Massive Open Online Course) takes four weeks to complete and is devised by the School of Management’s Centre for Healthcare Innovation and Improvement (CHI²), along with the West of England Academic Health Science Network (AHSN).