Manufacturing and Production

Corruption and bribery feature heavily in the news this week. A recently exposed 1997 email chain shows Dr Richard Sackler, member of the billionaire founding family of Purdue Pharma, knew about the potential abuse of opioids by its clients. In India, a recent report by the Support for Advocacy and Training to Health Initiatives (Sathi) revealed the widespread use of bribes by pharmaceutical companies in India, and how they take advantage of the lax government penalties against such actions.

NDA's Lisa Peluso, Director, Coaching and Client Engagement, outlines key strategies for interacting with audiences and payers while maximising team alignment when it comes to delivering a product to market.

The number of illegal diazepam tablets seized by the UK Border Force has doubled in a year, going from 545,000 in 2017 to 1.3 million in 2018.

Diazepam, also known as Valium, it a class-C drug that is used to treat anxiety, muscle spasms and seizures. The medicine is available on the NHS through prescription. The drug is recommended to be taken for no longer than four weeks. A person caught with the drug without a prescription could face a jail sentence of up to two years.

A recently exposed 1997 email chain shows Dr Richard Sackler, member of the billionaire founding family of Purdue Pharma, knew about the potential abuse of opioids by its clients.

This email exchange was included in over 1,000 pages of Kentucky court records that are now being made public. They offer one of the most complete pictures to date of Sackler’s presence while working inside Purdue. From 1996 to 1999 he was Senior Vice President and was directly involved in guiding the promotional strategy for OxyContin.

AstraZeneca has announced its intention to jettison the rights to two non-core drugs in the US and Canada in order to “support the company’s focus on main therapy areas”.

The two products in question are Seroquel (quetiapine fumarate immediate release) and Seroquel XR (quetiapine fumarate extended release), atypical anti-psychotic medicines which are used in the treatment of schizophrenia and bipolar disorder.

Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has written to US President Donald Trump demanding he confirm that he will not put up drug prices in a UK-US post-Brexit trade deal.

Frank Young, FDA Commissioner from 1984-1989, died on 24 November. He was 88; his son, Jonathan, said the cause was lymphoma.

Young had an impressive academic career before serving in the FDA under Presidents Ronald Reagan and George HW Bush. During the 1970s, he was responsible for key advances in the study of bacteria which made the scientific practice of cloning possible.