ABSTRACT

From an international point of view, to highlight something we knew: that WHO, in its current configuration, is not prepared for global health challenges. However, this finding is important in the article in the British Medical Journal by Anthony Costello. Europe, once again in the center of expansion of the pandemic. The decision of the North American Democrats to reduce the price of medicines, via the negotiation in Medicare, is very far-reaching. This decision, if applied, will have major consequences for the entire pharmaceutical industry globally.

At the national level, to highlight the article in The Lancet, which says that Spain could have achieved group immunity. For the rest, the incidence of COVID continues to grow in our country, although it does not reach, by far, those of other European countries. Waiting lists are a big concern throughout Spain. Controversy over the new Equity, Universalization and Cohesion Law. Podemos wants to take advantage of it to repeal Law 15/1997, which allows the outsourcing of health services.

As a business activity, to highlight the two new antivirals against covid-19, one from Merck and the other from Pfizer. Merck has released the patent so that it can be used widely in developing countries. Novartis dissociates itself from Roche, selling it its 33% stake in the latter company.

INTERNATIONAL

• The WHO, in its current configuration, is not ready for its purpose, but is limited by lack of funds and political interference, and this has been demonstrated in this pandemic that has produced more than 18 million deaths, writes the economist Anthony Costello in the British Medical Journal (BMJ, 3 Nov 21)
• Europe once again at the center of the covid pandemic, says WHO, (The Guardian, 4 Nov 21)
• The WHO warns of the increase in deaths from covid in 56 countries, and insists that vaccine manufacturers have not done their job well (ConSalud, 5 Nov 21)
• Democrats in the United States reach an agreement to reduce the price of drugs, allowing the government to negotiate the price of Medicare drugs. The United States pays three times more for many drugs than Europe, according to a study by the Brookings Institution. Initially, the measure will be launched with the 12 most expensive drugs (FT, 2 Nov 21)
• The fourth wave continues to beat the record of infections in Greece, with almost 7,000 daily (El Confidencial, 6 Nov 21)
• Excess mortality grows in Russia, since the beginning of the pandemic (FT, 2 Nov 21)
• The management of the pandemic leaves a trail of investigated political leaders: Brazil, France, Italy, Austria, India, … (El Debate, 2 Nov 21)
• India’s successes against covid are analyzed: more than half of Indians have received at least one dose of the vaccine. 6 million are vaccinated every day (The Economist, 29 Oct 21)

NATIONAL

• The Lancet suggests that Spain could have achieved group immunity. They are based on the high infections and the high percentage of vaccination (La Razón, 3 Nov 21)
• The incidence of covid rises more than two points, to 53.7 cases per 100,000 inhabitants (El País, 5 Nov 21)
• Madrid for the first time exceeds half a million patients to see the specialist. Experts warn that the pandemic has generated in Spain a dammed demand that will emerge in the coming semesters (El País, 5 Nov 21)
• Spain, one of the five countries in which Covid-19 caused the greatest loss in life expectancy, according to a study published by the British Medical Journal (ABC, 3 Nov 21)
• The Health Ministry sells a million vaccines to Australia, New Zealand and Paraguay, before they expire (El Español, 2 Nov 21)
• The WHO requests to increase oral public coverage in Spain (Health Act. The proposal receives the support of the General Council of Dentists (Health Act, 5 Nov 21)
• Podemos will not support the Darias Equity Law. The Ministry wants to promote a Law of Equity, Universality and Cohesion and Podemos does not support it by not repealing Law 15/1997, which allows the outsourcing of health services (ConSalud, 5 Nov 21)
• The Health Ministry seeks location for its strategic reserve of covid material (El Periódico de España, 5 Nov 21)

COMPANIES, EMPLOYERS AND MAIN ACTORS IN HEALTH

• Merck drug effective to treat covid-19. The drug is an oral antiviral, called molnupiravir, and has already been approved by the British Agency. It has been launched by Merck and Ridbback Biotherapeutics, a Florida-based biotech. The drug is indicated for the unvaccinated and for those vaccinated who develop the disease. The treatment will be worth US $ 700 in developed countries. Merck will allow the development of generics in 105 countries (The Economist, 4 Nov 21)
• Alphabet, Google’s parent company, launches an AI company, Isomorphic Labs, for the discovery of new drugs. It will work together with DeepMinds, Google’s AI company (FT, 4 Nov 21)
• Pfizer increases the sales forecast of its covid vaccine in 2021 to 36,000 million US $ (FT, 2 Nov 21)
• Biogroup, a bioanalysis group piloted by Stéphane Eimer and with a presence in Belgium, Luxembourg and the United Kingdom, enters the Iberian Peninsula with the purchase of Cerba Internacional and Analiza (both owned by Marcelo Weisz). ASISA will retain its 50% stake in Analiza (Les Echos, 4 Nov 21)
• Novavax, a protein-based American covid-19 vaccine, receives its first approval in Indonesia. May promote immunization in developing countries. An application for authorization has also been sent to Canada, the United Kingdom and the European Union (FT, 1 Nov 21)
• Pfizer announces an antiviral pill (Paxlovid) that prevents 89% of hospitalizations and deaths from covid (El País, 5 Nov 21)
• The Valencian government will propose to the Data Protection Agency a sanction to Ribera for withholding data from the Torrevieja hospital (eldiario.es, Nov 4 21)
• Centene closes the year of the coronavirus with losses in its health adventure in Spain (Nov 6, 21)
• “Son Espases”: the macro-investigation on the concession to OHL of this hospital in the Balearic Islands, which links the Balearic Islands with the illegal financing of the PP (eldiario.es, Nov 5, 21)
• Novartis sells its 33% stake to Roche for more than US $ 20 billion. A relationship of more than twenty years between the two companies is ended (PlantaDoce, Nov 4, 21)
• MD Anderson launches a clinical trials unit (PlantaDoce, 3 Nov 21)
• Eugin expands through Canada and acquires the fertility centers of Trio Fertility (PlantaDoce, 2 Nov 21)
• Affidea, a European provider of diagnostic imaging, outpatient services and cancer care, expands in Spain and Northern Ireland with two new acquisitions (PlantaDoce, Nov 3, 21)
• The biotechnology company of Spanish origin Aura Biosciences, jumps to the Nasdaq (PlantaDoce, 3 Nov 21)
• Rovi doubles its profit in the first nine months of 2021, to 99 million (PlantaDoce, 3 Nov 21)