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March 2020 – Clinical, regulatory and pharmacovigilance solution provider to the global life science industry, Biomapas, appointed leading pharmacovigilance professional Martijn van de Leur as Head of Global Pharmacovigilance. With offices located in Lithuania, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and Poland, Biomapas provides services in 60+ countries across 4 continents. As a functional and full outsourcing solution provider, Biomapas continues to strengthen its international team and geographical coverage of its services globally.

February 2020 – Clinical, regulatory and pharmacovigilance solution provider to the global life science industry Biomapas announced strategic growth in Warsaw. With offices located in Lithuania, Switzerland, Sweden, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and now in Poland, Biomapas provides services in 60+ countries across 4 continents. As a functional and full outsourcing solution provider, with a new office in Central Europe Biomapas will strengthen its international team and geographical coverage of its services.

Regina Auskalniene, Head of Clinical Operations at Biomapas, was elected to lead Lithuanian Good Clinical Practice and Regulatory Affairs Association. The association unites middle size and global CROs in the Baltic countries and is focusing on creating the most efficient environment in Europe to deliver clinical trials. „Everyone in our association agrees that we can run much more clinical trials in the Baltic states, thus creating an attractive place for clinical research in the future,” said Regina Auskalniene.

The trend of outsourcing continues to grow in the life science industry. Global regulatory affairs outsourcing market was valued at US $5.7 billion in 2018, and is expected to witness a compound annual growth rate of 11.9% over the period to 2026. Regulatory affairs outsourcing may vary in extent (from stand-alone service to full-scope solution), length (project based or long-term partnership with selected vendor), model (insourcing a dedicated expert for specific project or functional service provision), etc.

In the process of marketing authorization, competent authorities classify medicinal products as the subject or not-subject to medical prescription. However, the classification of medicinal products can be reevaluated and changed via a regulated procedure. When considering a switch, many factors like characteristics of market and population, local policies, advertising, confidence in regulatory authorities and other, influence the outcome. Though, the safety of patients has the highest priority. So, what questions should you ask?

Russia is a very perspective country for international clinical trial conduction. The first international clinical trial was set up in Russia about 20 years ago only, and from than country kept a great potential for market development. In 2018 health authorities (HAs) approved 653 clinical trials (CT) in Russian Federation, less in overall numbers compared to the same indicator from 2016 – 898 approved CTs. However, this decrease was observed across all types of clinical trials except for international multicentre clinical trials (IMCT).

PV legislation introduced by the European Commission in 2012 and GVP guidelines together with local requirements committed each MAH to perform literature review in countries where their products are present. Compliance with mandatory requirements and guidelines is not always a simple task when local requirements and specifics come along. In this article, we will take a closer look at these challenges and specifics for local literature surveillance in different regions as EU, CIS and LATAM.

Ramune Rukiene joined Biomapas as Director Regulatory Affairs to further strengthen continued growth and geographic extension of Biomapas. Ramune will play an important role by leading regulatory activities, ensuring highest service quality and maximizing the efficiency of medicinal and veterinary product placement into the market. Furthermore, Ramune will work together with the management team to set a regulatory affairs strategy and to deliver unmatched service experience and quality in the market.

The number of clinical trials worldwide is increasing more than 10% each year due to the new diseases, further research for better health products and development of new drugs. Though, for a successful clinical trial, there is a major challenge – patient recruitment, which is essential and the most challenging factor due to the increasing number of new clinical trials. In order to achieve the required patient recruitment, sponsors are looking for different solutions.

The IDMP is a general term by which the 5 ISO data standards are referenced: ISO 11615 (regulated medicinal product information), ISO 11616 (regulated pharmaceutical product information), ISO 11238 (substances), ISO 11239 (pharmaceutical dose forms, units of presentation, routes of administration and packaging) and ISO 11240 (units of measurement). – which are being refined and implemented by regulatory bodies.

In the past five years, an average of 175 clinical trials are being initiated in the Baltic states each year. An average of 64,8% of the population in the Baltic states are in the age from 15 to 65 years old, the main target audience for clinical trials. Furthermore, a large pool of treatment-naïve subjects is available compared to other EU countries or the US. Patients with special therapeutic diseases are transferred to the main central hospitals.

Falsified Medicines Directive (FMD) 2011/62/EU which aims to increase the security of manufacturing and delivery of medicines across Europe as well as protect patients and prevent falsified medicines from entering the supply chain has come in force Feb 9th, 2019. With the first quarter almost over, it is a great opportunity to look back and share the experience. The new requirements for safety features to appear on the packaging of all prescription medicines.

Filip Risteski was recently appointed as Chief Financial Officer (CFO) at Biomapas and will be one of the key players further strengthening continued growth of Biomapas. Filip will report directly to Audrius Sveikata, Biomapas Chief Executive Officer. As a CFO he will be responsible for placing control over finance function and financial strategy, by maximizing efficiency and ensuring highest quality standards. Furthermore, Filip will work with a management team on implementation of overall company business strategy.

In order to support the continued growth of Biomapas, the company has appointed a Director of Human Resources, Monika Lakytė. “We are excited to have Monika as a member of our management team. She shares our values and our focus on future goals, her professional experience in recruitment process and personnel management will endorse our continued growth. People as Monika is the result of highest quality standards in our work,” said Juozas Buitkus, Biomapas COO.

On 29th March 2017 UK submitted the notification of its intention to withdraw from the EU. This means that UK will become a ‘third country’ from 30th March’19. Even though leaving the EU with a deal remains the Government’s top priority, UK drug agency is publishing a series of guidance documents for industry and other stakeholders covering the proposed arrangements for the regulation of medicines, medical devices and clinical trials, if UK leaves EU with no deal.

In January 2019 Biomapas became active in an European Union funded project of strengthening international competitiveness by raising awareness in foreign markets.

The interest of pharmaceutical companies in expanding business across CIS region has been constantly growing. For the same reason, Biomapas has expanded presence and now covers the whole CIS region, providing core services: clinical research, regulatory affairs, pharmacovigilance.
Associate Director Business Development Egle Pavyde, shares some thoughts about region peculiarities, recent legislation changes and Biomapas experience providing RA and PV services in CIS.

The United Kingdom (UK) submitted on 29 March 2017 the notification of its intention to withdraw from the Union pursuant to Article 50 of the Treaty on European Union (EU). This means that the United Kingdom will become a ‘third country’ from 30 March 2019.
According to Directive 2001/83/EC the reference member state (RMS) must be a member of the EU. As a result the RMS role in Mutual Recognition and Decentralised Procedures (MRP/DCP) must be transferred to an EU country.

Biomapas currently covers 64 countries across Europe, CIS and MENA regions. Being able to provide clinical trial, regulatory affairs, medical writing and vigilance solutions to all of these countries requires us to have a large repertoire of native speakers on staff.

Since providing top quality work to our customers has always been of paramount importance for Biomapas, we needed a way to ensure document accuracy, and therefore decided to look at proofreading software to help us maintain quality.