To begin with, GlaxoSmithKline, one of the most wealthy companies in the world, announced In the publication of its 2015 Annual Report to shareholders that Sir Andrew Witty, the chief executive officer, will retire on March 31, 2017. The document says the Board will now conduct a formal search for a successor and will consider internal and external candidates for the role.
Witty will depart after 32 years of service at GSK, 10 spent as Chief Executive Officer. Although GlaxoSmithKline’s share price continues to rise, some investors are concerned about the lack of new products coming through and the fact that patents on some leading products are drifting towards expiry.
Moving from a nominally British company to a German one, pharma-and-chemical giant Bayer AG has announced it will open an innovation center in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Bayer indicates that it is in late-stage negotiations for a space that will enable the company to focus on building partnerships with various biotechnology companies in the region.
The new set-up will be called the Bayer East Coast Innovation Center, and it will, according to documents issued: “serve as a regional hub to strengthen Bayer’s ties to the thriving life science community.”
The company already has similar innovation centers established in San Fransisco, Berlin, Beijing, Osaka and Singapore. For example, in San Francisco and Berlin, Bayer hosts a CoLaborator — an incubator space for young life sciences companies with similar therapeutic interests.
From the regulatory perspective, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has cited an Indian pharmaceutical company called Lupin. The manufacturer has received nine observations relating to inadequacy and adherence to operating norms relating a plant in Goa.
The FDA warning suggested conditions or practices observed would indicate that any drug or device has been adulterated or is being prepared, packed, or held under conditions whereby it may become adulterated.
Finally, as a further indicator of globalization, Novo Nordisk has reported a strong demand for its diabetes treatments in China. According to Jesper Brandgaard, chief financial officer at the firm, as it told PharmaFile, the company has seen an “underlining significant growth” in the number of people getting diabetes in the Asian nation.
