Welcome to the May 2024 issue of Pharmafocus!

As we approach the summer months and the weather finally begins to warm up, we take a look at some advances within the pharma industry. This issue covers the latest pharma news from Eko Health’s new AI heart failure detection system gaining FDA approval (page 2) and Medincell and AbbVie announcing a collaboration for new injectable treatments (page 4), to GSK sharing new data from a phase 3 trial for its gonorrhoea treatment (page 6) and Johnson & Johnson’s acquisition of Shockwave Medical for a huge $13.1bn (page 12).

Also in this issue, Alexion, AstraZeneca Rare Disease, considers the need to emphasise the patient voice in order to accelerate innovation in rare disease treatment (page 13) and Angelini Pharma evaluates the global challenge of epilepsy and how it aims to address the gaps in epilepsy treatment (page 14). This issue also has a focus on psychoactive medicine, with Beckley Psy tech talking to Pharmafocus about how psychedelic medicine can be used for the treatment of psychiatric and neurological conditions as well as how the field could develop going forward (page 16). Similarly, Compass Pathways considers the need for new mental health treatments and whether psychoactives could be the way forward (page 18).

Finally, I assess sustainability in the pharma industry, considering what this means, what has already changed and the further steps the industry needs to take in order to prevent additional damage to the environment and climate (page 20).

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