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Indian pharmaceutical firms received more than double the amount of warning letters in the first ten months of 2019, compared with 2018, while Pakistan has registered cases against 200 pharmaceutical companies as it cracks down on illict pratices.

Also in the news, a team at Cardiff University have discovered a new part of the human immune system that could be harnessed to kill prostate, breast, lung and other cancers in lab tests.

China has approved the import of Roche’s drug for breast cancer, just after it recently won expanded approval in the US, Canada and Europe.

The drug is an antibody-drug conjugate (ADC). Like other ADCs, it is a type of treatment that combines cancer-tracking proteins with powerful cell toxins. They are becoming more popular as a treatment as companies like Roche and GlaxoSmithKline have tested a record number of these compounds in people.

Pakistan is cracking down on corruption and has registered cases against 200 pharmaceutical companies, while in the US the FDA has move to authorise Blueprint Medicines’ kinase inhibitor Ayvakit (avapritinib) for the treatment of unresectable or metastatic gastrointestinal stromal tumours.

In Europe, Sanofi has revealed that the European Commission has expanded the existing label for Toujeo to include the treatment of children and adolescent patients with diabetes.

The US and China signed the first part of a broader trade pact that included setting up a system to resolve conflicts over drug patents between the two countries.

In a statement the Trump administration said: “Robust protection of intellectual property is critical to incentivizing the development of new and innovative treatments and cures.”

Public Health England has released figures that show that HIV rates in bi and gay men have fallen by 73% since 2014 in the UK.

This has largely been attributed to the rise in the use of pre-exposure prophylaxis (Prep). It is a pill that is taken daily, or prior to sex, to prevent HIV infection. If taken consistently it protects cells in the body and disables the virus to stop it multiplying, so it won’t spread even if a condom isn’t used during sex.

The US pharamaceutical industry dominates the news this week, with Pfizer, Sanofi and GlaxoSmithKline all increasing their drug prices while Novo Nordisk is offering its US patients free insulin.

Staying with America, the link between talc powder and ovarian cancer has been cast in to doubt, with the largest study of its kind concluding their is no link between them.

10. FDA gives a priority review for key heart failure drug Farxiga

The recent pneumonia outbreak in Wuhan could potentially be a new virus, according to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

The WHO said it could be an emerging member of the family of viruses that caused the SARS and MERS outbreaks.

The UN health agency said it needed more information to confirm precisely what is causing the infections.

A team of Chinese experts showed a new type of coronavirus caused the outbreak that began in December.