Poland is slowly expanding beyond its position as a central European generics hub. More established companies are adding innovative medicine pipelines and a small number of biotechs are making international deals.

The June meeting of the European Medicines Agency's human medicines committee brought mixed fortunes for companies. 10 new products were recommended for pan-EU approval, two drugs were rejected, while the conditional approval of one drug is set to be revoked. PTC Therapeutics again faced disappointment regarding its Duchenne muscular dystrophy drug Translarna, but has vowed to fight back.

SanBio’s lead cell therapy asset has been on a bumpy journey to its global-first approval and while a nod has now come in Japan in a high-need indication, a commercial launch is conditional on additional data to establish product equivalence and manufacturing consistency. 

Regeneron, whose blood cancer treatment odronextamab was recently turned down by the US regulator but not for reasons relating to efficacy or safety, could soon learn whether its product will be among the drugs to get the thumbs up from the CHMP, the European Medicines Agency’s human medicines committee.