Outlook 2020

Supplement industry’s bullseye on “60 Minutes” after its June segment critical of probiotic health benefits generated the most reads for a US consumer health and overall for HBW Insight articles in 2020. Articles about COVID-19 enforcement actions weren’t as widely read as coverage of FDA’s reorganization in its OTC drug offices and its approvals of additional ingredients to be available OTC.

Given the consecutive growth Krka has seen in its prescription pharmaceuticals portfolio along with an increase in overall sales, the company has announced investments of €134m in infrastructure and production facilities. This follows a €30m investment in the first half of 2020.

In Vivo held its first executive briefing in December 2019 focused on the outlook for the biopharma sector in the 2020s. Looking to the next decade, six panelists debated in front of an audience of invited guests a variety of issues expected to dominate agendas: pricing and reimbursement, digital transformation, mergers and acquisitions, funding and more.

2019 will be remembered as a banner year for international drug makers as many grew at phenomenal rates in China, despite expansion of the “4+7” centralized procurement scheme and steep price cuts in exchange for reimbursement. As the government continues to emphasize affordability for cancer drugs and major anti-infectives, competition is heating up quickly and immune-oncology alone has seen six PD-1s elbowing each other for market share.

PAGB president and Perrigo UK head Neil Lister reflects on 100 years of the association's UK OTC market leadership, as well as its plans for the future. 

Scrip delves into some key trends that could play out in 2020 to shape and impact Indian pharmaceutical firms. Keep an eye on opportunities in key markets like China and the US, and on private equity interest in “control deals” and trade margin-related tweaks on the Indian market.

INFOGRAPHIC: An interactive timeline of HBW Insight's coverage of the blossoming European CBD market in 2019. The timeline covers the main events of the year beginning with the European Commission's decision to classify CBD as a novel food, and ending on the filing of the first application for a synthetic form of the cannabis-derived ingredient.

Bayer’s ambitious campaign to reposition itself as a global leader in two complementary fields – health and nutrition – will face its toughest test in the US, with its highly litigious approach to product liability and a tendency to target pharmaceuticals as the source of the health system’s affordability and access problems.

The term artificial intelligence was coined at the Dartmouth Summer Research Project in 1956, but it is only in very recent years that it has been consistently at the top of the agenda in discussions on the future direction of health care. AI is now increasingly seen as a realistic solution to demand overload on clinicians. At the same time, techno-fears are abating. This confluence will transform health care radically in the next two decades.  

Moderate growth at Bristol-Myers Squibb and Amgen moved the two companies into the top 10 pharma ranks, based on the most recent Scrip 100 rankings, while declining growth at Gilead and Teva moved those drug makers out.