The Asia Corner - From the Editors of PharmAsia News June 30, 2009
In this BioPharma Today feature, the editors of PharmAsia News take a closer look each week at the most important biopharma developments from China, India, Japan, and the Pacific Rim.
Read today's features...
"What we are trying to do here is to build a China portal to our global organizations," Tony Zhang told PharmAsia News. "Traditionally, other than licensing activities, we were pretty much doing everything ourselves within the walls of Lilly. Right now not only more of the work is carried out through partners, but emerging external capacities and capabilities are also changing the nature of our work." Read more...
Meanwhile, in moves that could ultimately help elevate safety and quality standards for drugs produced across Asia, including those exported to North America, the United States Pharmacopeial Convention has signed a series of agreements with China and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations on closer scientific exchanges and joint testing of pharmaceuticals.
Under three new USP agreements with Chinese provincial-level drug regulators, "each side is committing to more formal and intensive interactions," said Matthew Heyman, vice president of external affairs and strategic integration for USP. The just-signed memoranda of understanding "build on earlier agreements USP has reached with China," explained Heyman, who is charged at USP with developing foreign ties and building alliances around the world.
The new pacts will help strengthen USP's ties with Chinese regulators and scholars by expanding a scientist exchange program, and by inviting leading Chinese professionals to join the American group's Council of Experts. Read on...
In India, over the past decade the clinical research industry has grown at a compound annual rate of 64 percent, zooming up from just $12 million in 2001 to an estimated billion-plus dollars by next year. But that meteoric rise may be putting pressure on Institutional Review Boards entrusted with approval of clinical trials and some industry experts are now asking for better controls over IRBs, or ethics review boards.
A senior government official who recently retired from the Indian Council of Medical Research agreed there is a need for stricter ethics boards and said it is time to be carefully consider current rules and guidelines. According to data drawn from http://www.clinicaltrials.gov/, most multinational companies have at least doubled the number of clinical trials in India over the last four years. At present, over 400 trials are being conducted in India. Read more...
- Kevin Holden
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