News of the Day

Next week's 2021-22 Budget will not include any new agreement between the federal government and Medicines Australia.

It is far easier to endorse a practically worthless waiver at the WTO than to do something that would actually make a difference like not undermine COVAX or allow the export of some of the more than 70 million unused doses currently in the US supply chain.

The global biopharmaceutical industry has come out hard against the US decision to back a move at the World Trade Organization to waive intellectual property rights for the makers of COVID-19 vaccines.

The Pharmaceutical Benefits Advisory Committee will meet today just days before the federal government announces its 2021-22 Budget while a very large number of companies will be represented at today's hearing of the 'Zimmerman' inquiry.

The number of COVID-19 vaccines administered globally is 1.21 billion across 174 countries, according to Bloomberg. The latest daily rate of doses administered is 19.7 million.

CSL has announced the closing of a global commercialisation and license agreement with US company uniQure under which it will gain rights to a novel gene therapy currently in late-stage development for the treatment of haemophilia B.

The federal government has extended the biosimilar education program, implemented by the Generic and Biosimilar Medicines Association Education, to June 2022.

Sanofi will use its appearance at today's public hearing of the 'Zimmerman' inquiry to restate its call for the federal government to launch the promised review of Australia's National Medicines Policy.

Arrotex general manager of marketing Lisa Golden says the company has seen a very positive response to the launch of biosimilar adalimumab.

Medibank has raised its outlook for total policyholder growth and says it now expects to achieve an increase of 3.5-4 per cent during the financial year 2021.

nib has announced the sale of its digital healthcare directory platform Whitecoat to the Commonwealth Bank with an expected profit before tax of approximately $9 million.

The full agenda for the BioPharmaDispatch conference is now published with a range of panels and speakers that will continue to evolve in the days before the event.