In a highly evolving regional pricing environment, Saudi Arabia (KSA) is no exception. The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has been periodically reviewing its pricing mechanisms and criteria so that the country becomes a regional reference for the prices of pharmaceutical products. What followed is a change in the pricing strategy by SFDA and a shift from price takers to price makers.
Reliance models are review pathways used by Regulators to expedite the patient access to essential pharmaceutical products and to overcome resource constraints and priorities. Recently, several National Competent Authorities (NCA) in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region have implemented the Abridged and Verification reviews. These regulatory procedures allow the approvement of needed innovative and/or life-saving drugs.
As the electronic Common Technical Document (eCTD) has become the standard for submitting Regulatory Information to leading agencies worldwide, its adoption still poses a considerable challenge for those agencies who lack the needed human and/or material resources. How is the situation in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region and what other dossier formats are accepted there?
An increasing number of countries worldwide have enacted regulations mandating serialization, tracking and tracing of pharmaceutical products down the supply chain during recent years as a response to drug integrity concerns. Are these regulations also required in Saudi Arabia and what about the whole Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region? What to expect if you serve these markets?
Health information that has been posted online by patients can efficiently supplement your post-marketing drug safety data gained from traditional sources. Data harvesting from Social Networking Sites (SNS) has a lot of potential and significant advantages when compared to traditional sources. One of the main benefits is the near real-time monitoring of Adverse Drug Reactions.
Scientists, doctors, and health authorities often use written communication to present their research, opinions, or guidelines to the patients. While the questions they approach may be complex, the language should not. In medical documents, misinterpreted information may endanger the health and life of a patient. Thus, the main goal in medical writing is to convey the message clearly and concisely to avoid misinterpretation.
In the previous two articles, we have shared our experience on various aspects of effective IND/IMPD CMC writing, considering proper planning, assigning a dedicated CMC writing team, and having effective project management. In addition, we discussed technical writing particulars giving some key messages on document preparation. Now, we will discuss other important points. These are safety, data completeness, and geographical regions.
In July 2020 Biomapas started an EU funded project of research and development activities by creating an artificial intelligence (AI) tool for pharmacovigilance services. The main aim of the project – to create a pharmacovigilance system based on artificial intelligence. Biomapas plans to commercialize the prototype of the technology created during the project in the form of a new pharmacovigilance service which will ensure continuous improvement of drug safety.
With the growth of social media network users all over the world, there is no doubt that one of the most widely used channels for promoting is social media. Statistics show that Facebook and Instagram were used actively with more than 3.4 billion people daily by January 2020. Therefore, since medical devices and over-the-counter medicines are being more often promoted by commercials on social media nowadays, there is a greater risk of hidden or misleading advertisements.
It is easy to notice that Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) have become a frequent occurrence in the Pharmaceutical industry, especially during the previous decades. Pharma industry is one of the leading industries in the number of M&A and the size of investments for such transitions. The value for M&A in the pharmaceutical sector was $221 billion in the first half of the year 2015. In 2019, the worth of pharma companies M&A activities have reached $357 billion.
This time we will focus on technical writing and preparation for it. Also, I will provide some primary recommendations for CMC writers. The IND/IMPD being a regulatory document, has the same structure as CTD dossier. However, it includes remarkably less information on the developmental product, yet, the technical writers should understand that they will need to prepare the document in the way to reflect the actual production process and control further during the development in the later clinical phases.
Preparation of Risk Management Plan (RMP) for a specific medicinal product usually is the responsibility of the Qualified Person Responsible for Pharmacovigilance (QPPV) and its team. Thus, QPPVs and their team’s should be familiar with legislation requirements for RMP preparation in different regions. Within this article, we will concentrate on the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and identify specific conditions of EAEU countries as well as to try to understand the expectations of Competent Authorities in this region.
Medicine is constantly evolving to invent effective ways to treat diseases. This progress is a never-ending process: life science industry develops new molecules and treatments and improves existing ones continually. Experimentation and testing have long been a part of medicine, and it is up until now as clinical trials have an essential part in the development of new treatments. These reasons allow us to assume that the relevance of clinical trials will not diminish in the future.
Do we truly know how to ensure IND or IMPD Quality (CMC) part is written in good quality, consistent and clear technical language? How to effectively manage the writing process? In this article, I will focus on these questions and the initial IND/IMPD, required to start clinical investigations in humans. Furthermore, I will provide the key features and practical advice on how to deliver effectiveness. Firstly, we have to define the team in order to understand if the organization has capabilities to do CMC writing in-house or needs to outsource.
May 2020 – Olga Bernardova joins Biomapas as Head of Global Regulatory Affairs to lead the regulatory affairs department and to ensure the best processes and means to serve Biomapas growth and international expansion. As a functional and full outsourcing solution provider, with offices in Lithuania, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine, Poland and Kazakhstan, Biomapas continues to expand its international team and further increases capabilities for client-oriented solutions.
Mistranslation of regulatory documents such as a summary of product characteristics, product information leaflets and instructions for use, could have a negative impact for the company and most importantly could lead to serious consequences to a patient’s health. In 2007, as a result of inaccurate translation, 47 patients had badly implanted knee prostheses. An outer package labelled in English included different information.
Biomapas has announced the opening of a new office in Central Asia. The new location in Kazakhstan strengthens Biomapas presence in the CIS region and further improves flexible and reliable clinical, regulatory and pharmacovigilance service delivery to the global life science industry in emerging markets. As a functional and full outsourcing solution provider, with a new office in Almaty, Biomapas continues to expand internationally.
Even though the drug safety and reporting of the adverse effects is the responsibility of all Health Care Providers, pharmacists and patients, statistics show that the one in charge is Marketing Authorization Holder. During the National semi-annual conference „Pharmaceutical News“, State Medicines Control Agency presented the statistics of suspected ADRs reporting in Lithuania.
March 2020 – Sebastien Duval joins Biomapas as Chief Business Officer to lead the business development department and extend Biomapas continued growth in the global life science industry. Sebastien Duval brings over 20 years of experience in the life science industry, previously acting as VP Sales Account Management at IQVIA, and further back in his career working as VP Business Development at Synteract, Executive Director, Global Head of Clinical Phase II-IV Business Development at QPS and as VP European Business Development at Premier Research.
Despite the fact that Ukraine is the largest country in Eastern Europe with a large population of treatment-naïve patients, well organized public health care sector and significant number of medical sites accredited for clinical trial conduction, country has utilized only 15% of its current potential for hosting clinical trials. During 2017, the European Medicine Agency (EMA) gave positive recommendations on 94 new drug applications and 49 of them were tested in clinical trials in Ukraine. During the same year, the US FDA approved 151 new drugs, and 28 of them were also studied in Ukraine.
