10-Oct-15 Myanmar is trying to kick its foreign drug habit: In recent years the government has offered incentives to seven private distributors to try their hand at manufacturing domestically. All other pharmaceutical products – between 80 percent and 90 percent – are imported. [image: Ann Wang / Frontier Myanmar]

09-Oct-15 Many treatments, including Herceptin and Gilead Sciences’ Sovaldi for hepatitis C, are either unavailable or more expensive in China than elsewhere. Aside from the lower price, visitors to Hong Kong from the mainland also prefer to buy their medicine there because they believe it is less likely to be counterfeit. [image: Bloomberg Business]

01-Oct-15 Vietnam's Ministry of Science & Technology will continue prioritising the national-level key science and technology programme on the application and development of advanced technology serving healthcare activities, pledged Minister Nguyen Quan. Together with mastering molecular biotechnologies in defining disease-causing substances, the programme has also helped raise preventive medicine and vaccine technologies to regional standards. [image: VNA]

27-Sep-15 Philippines Vice President Jejomar Binay lamented the Aquino administration’s failure to deliver and distribute P4.63 bn (USD100 mn) worth of medicine and equipment that could have prevented the spread of deadly diseases, such as dengue, malaria, pneumonia, tuberculosis and hepatitis. “It is time to review the DoH health programs and realign the budget towards preventing diseases,” Binay said. [image: The Standard]

16-Sep-15 Indonesia, home to the largest Muslim population in the world, wants to lead the way in developing a simpler halal certification pathway for pharmaceutical and biomedical products. Some observers worry, however, that laws that completely marry the needs of Muslim Sharia Law and traditional drug certification pathways may prove impossible. [image: Halal Certified Medicine]