Uzbekistan

CDER manufacturing quality director notes origin of Food, Drug and Cosmetic Act in 1938 is linked to DEG/EG poisoning. FDA says current outbreak in at least seven countries “one of the largest epidemics of DEG and EG poisoning in history.”

Uzbekistan is the most populous country in Central Asia with 36 million people. The country has the only plant in Central Asia specializing in insulin production for the treatment of diabetes. Uzbek authorities aim to develop 90 pharma projects worth $1.2bn by 2026.  

Pharmaceutical leaders are responding to the many and varied challenges arising from the war in Ukraine.  

Dr Reddy's is poised to expand its OTC offering in Russia and certain CIS countries by snapping up a basket of allergy brands from fellow Indian firm Glenmark.

Reporting double-digit growth in the first half of 2019, Krka says it has mined marketing opportunities in new eastern European markets by introducing its established treatments for cardiovascular diseases

Various economies of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) are pressing ahead with medtech regulatory changes nationally and/or regionally, which can only be good for the delivery of quality care over the long term. But a question mark still hangs over the official start date of the EAEU medtech regulatory system; a formal postponement may be decided soon.

It's not hard to see why the World Health Organization is reluctant to adopt the term "totally drug resistant" (TDR) to describe the growing number of strains of tuberculosis that seem to be proving unresponsive to any kind of drug therapy.

Valeant Pharmaceuticals has announced two acquisitions in as many days, but is being a little coy as to how much it has spent.

Dr Reddy's Laboratories has called off plans to acquire fellow Indian firm JB Chemicals & Pharmaceuticals' prescription pharmaceutical business in Russia and the CIS.

The World Health Organization is to hold a workshop in October to discuss the lessons learned from the handling of the flu pandemic and how to respond more effectively to such events in future. Topics will include the need for better co-ordination among countries, the purchasing and use of vaccines and antivirals, and the role of the pharmaceutical industry.

Latvia's second largest pharmaceutical manufacturer Olainfarm plans to increase sales by 10% to Ls24.5 million ($42.4 million) and increase profits by 15% to Ls2.7 million in the current year, its management board has said. However, it noted that the company's main markets have not yet fully recovered from the recent financial and economic crisis.

Polpharma, one of Poland's largest pharmaceutical manufacturers, is buying an antibiotics production business from Bioton, another local company, for PLN 80 million ($8 million). Poland's office of competition and consumer protection has approved the deal.

Pharmacy sales in Ukraine grew by 22% to Hr11.4 billion ($1.4 billion) in the first nine months of last year, but the number of packs sold fell by 14% to 764.9 million, according to the Kiev-based weekly, Apteka. Its analysts believe that this was a good result, taking into account the economic decline in the country.

The development of the national pharmaceutical industry in Uzbekistan is economically feasible, despite it currently being uncompetitive compared with those in many other countries, Professor Akhmad Yunuskhodzhaev, director of the pharmaceutical institute in Tashkent, has said.

Uzbekistan is developing international collaborations in order to benefit from more advanced approaches to pharmaceutical production, after it signed agreements with at least two foreign companies in the second half of 2009.

Latvia's second-largest pharmaceutical company, Olainfarm, made a net profit of €1.8 million in the first nine months of this year, compared with a €1.9 million net loss in the same period of 2008. Its earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) more than tripled to €4.9 million.

Pharmaceutical sales in Uzbekistan grew by 11% last year to $285 million, reports RMBC, the Moscow-based market research company (now part of IMS Health).

One of the largest pharmaceutical manufacturers in Ukraine, Arterium, has criticised a parliamentary decision to install Braille labelling on all packs of medicines marketed in the country by next year.

Dr Jonathan Knowles, president of group research at Roche, tells Gerhard Symons about optimising Roche's R&D, the company's partnership strategies, and his personal crusade from day one: personalised healthcare

IMS Health, the market intelligence and statistics consultancy, has acquired RMBC, which provides pharmaceutical market intelligence and analytics for the Russian market. RMBC gathers retail and hospital prescribing data from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan. IMS says that Russia and the Commonwealth of Independent States together represent a pharmaceutical market worth $10 billion that is growing at 10-15% annually.