Global

A new European collaboration of biotech, pharma, academia, and government takes up the challenge of boosting R&D.

One health insurance company in The Netherlands is offering doctors a financial incentive to prescribe generic statins and proton pump inhibitors. Doctors and patients complained, but a court upheld the practice.

Serious offenders of the new Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry's Code of Practice can be "named and shamed" with adverts in the trade press. Details of breaches by companies will be posted online.

Traders say parallel distribution of drugs generates savings for patients. Industry says it creates more profits for traders, leaving pharma with less R&D funding.