Considering the landscape of women’s health in 2024

Welcome to the April issue of Pharmafocus!

As the weather warms up, so do innovations in the world of pharma! This issue covers the latest pharma news, from the US FDA granting Investigational New Drug clearance to Spero Therapeutics’ bacterial infection treatment (page 5), and Merck sharing data from its phase 3 trial of Keytruda as a treatment for cervical cancer (page 6), to Novo Nordisk’s Awiqli being recommended by the Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use for diabetes treatment (page 9) and finally Fusion Therapeutics’ acquisition by AstraZeneca (page 12).

In addition, Veeva tells Pharmafocus about the benefits and drawbacks of certain messaging services for healthcare professionals, as well as explaining how its platform can be used to combat these issues (page 14), while McKinsey considers the value of generative artificial intelligence (AI) and how it can be used within the pharma industry (page 16).

This issue also has a focus on women’s health, with Organon telling Pharmafocus about innovations in contraception and how this can impact rates of unintended pregnancy (page 18), while InnoScot Health considers how the industry can work to close the gender health gap (page 20).

Finally, I take an overall look at the 2024 landscape of women’s health, from the changing laws and legislation around abortions and IVF, to pregnancy and maternity care, and the women’s health-specific hubs that are being set up around the UK (page 22).

I hope you enjoy this issue, and we’ll be back again soon with Pharmafocus May!

Betsy Goodfellow