Some months after the first Covid-19 vaccines became available, the World Health Organization (WHO) set a target of vaccinating 70% of each country’s population by the end of June 2022. Global trends indicate that initially, a slow supply did not allow African countries, in particular, to stay on pace to meet this target, and now vaccination rates have even begun to slow down. Given the deadline, we explore the current relevance and achievability of the WHO’s target, and why it proved challenging for some developing nations in Africa.  

Also in this issue, we take a look at efforts to tackle the opioid epidemic and how small biotechs and research labs appear to be at the forefront of innovative research in that domain.  

Don’t miss the data-led investigations into the demand for jobs in cybersecurity and big data in the pharmaceutical industry, and how artificial intelligence-led efforts in drug discovery may still only be at the start of a long development journey.  

All this, and the latest pharma industry news, comment, data and analysis from GlobalData. 

Manasi Vaidya, editor