La organización de la industria IFPMA organizó una reunión informativa el 19 de marzo con ejecutivos de alto nivel de cinco gigantes farmacéuticos mundiales: Eli Lilly, Johnson y Johnson, Roche, Sanofi y Takeda. Discutieron cuán comprometida está la industria para aprovechar su experiencia combinada para resolver esta crisis global, así como para garantizar que cualquier vacuna o tratamiento desarrollado sea accesible para todos los que lo necesite.
Since the Covid-19 outbreak first emerged into the public consciousness in mid-January this year, the pharma industry has been working hard to repurpose existing anti-viral drugs and fast-track vaccine development for this novel coronavirus.
During an International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA) briefing, the organisation’s director-general Thomas Cueni noted how far the pharma industry had come in a few short months, stating how much the industry benefitted from the Chinese authorities’ move to quickly share the genetic sequence of Covid-19.
IFPMA president and Eli Lilly CEO and chairman David Ricks stated how committed the pharma industry is to “play our part” and put the full force of its expertise behind resolving the Covid-19 pandemic.
Importance of industry-wide collaboration
This situation requires unprecedented levels of partnership between all stakeholders, Cueni noted. Ricks stated: “I have never seen the kind of collaboration across industry partners, biotech, academia that I am seeing now.” He added: “We are sending a clear signal of how seriously industry is taking the pandemic and the need to act as one team.”
Contributing to the IFPMA-chaired discussion, Johnson & Johnson chief scientific officer Paul Stoffels explained the industry has the technology and existing know-how, but the only way to advance candidates into clinical trials as quickly as possible is to work with regulators and the clinical community.
Takeda global vaccines business unit president Rajeev Venkayya explains this doesn’t mean industry should work on the same, singular vaccine approach. Instead, there is value from various groups working simultaneously on many different approaches, as it means there is a higher likelihood of a safe and efficacious vaccine emerging more quickly.
Better collaboration will also enable the pharma industry to overcome its primary challenge in vaccine development and commercialisation: manufacturing capacity. Stoffels noted that “the quantity [of vaccine] needed will be unprecedented”, so there is a need for companies to share and gear up their manufacturing capacity.
