Citeline, a Norstella company

McKinsey senior partner Vivek Pandit talks to Scrip about some of the intricacies underlying the key findings of a study on pharma’s workforce gender gap in India. Women’s representation starts low at entry level, peaks at senior manager positions and falls off again for C-suite roles, this found.

As South Korea gears up for a snap presidential election, its biopharma industry proposes key desired policies to candidates, most of whom have not laid out detailed plans of their own for the sector.

Announced after three years of negotiation, the FTA eliminates tariffs on 99% of Indian product types, covering nearly all trade value, and reduces tariffs on 90% of UK products. Although not yet formally signed, the deal is being positioned by the Indian government as “transformative,” with an estimated economic impact of $6.4bn for the UK alone by 2040.

With the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting kicking off on 30 May, Scrip will follow the latest in blood cancers, including Regeneron’s linvoseltamab in multiple myeloma and Merck’s ADC zilovertamab vedotin in DLBCL.

The US’ 90-day suspension of higher “reciprocal tariffs” will expire on 9 July, raising fears that the 31% tariff rate on Swiss medtech and other goods exported to the US might make a comeback. While the tariff situation changes on an almost daily basis, medtechs should forearm for any eventually, say local business organizations.

The brunt of the tariff exposure stems from Singapore and Costa Rica, which together account for an estimated 70% to 80% of the tariff-related cost burden. Less than 10% of the exposure is tied to China.

Cipla's CEO underlines that US generic prices are already “very significantly comparable” with the rest of the world and expects President Donald Trump's executive order on drug pricing to primarily impact branded pharmaceuticals. The company also shared updates on its US pipeline.

Lupin CEO Vinita Gupta speaks on Trump’s most favored nation policy, the Inflation Reduction Act’s “pill penalty” and other developments in the US, a major market for the company. The company also outlines a five-year plan focused on complex generics and technology platforms.

Pink Sheet reporter and editors discuss the new clinical trial requirements that the FDA announced for COVID-19 vaccines, the updated label for Novavax’s newly approved COVID-19 vaccine, and other vaccine-related events that were part of a busy week for policy in the sector.

The FDA’s advisors split on whether to update COVID-19 vaccines for the fall. The agency refused to discuss the impact of the new vaccine framework on availability.

The budget authority total, which is significantly higher than the amount floated in an April OMB draft document, suggests there may have been successful lobbying to increase FDA funding.

The FDA may have violated laws and regulations along with many norms in how it released its planned changes for COVID-19 vaccine approvals.