Experts including renowned virologist Peter Piot, FDA’s Peter Marks and CEPI’s Richard Hatchett discussed multiple dimensions pertaining to coronavirus variants and existing vaccines at a recent conference, noting enhanced post-deployment surveillance is underway in the US. While there’s no need to panic for every variant that emerges, equitable access to vaccines is critical to ensure that gains made over last year are not undone, they said.

Merck & Co. executive outlines how the company could sustain a “compliant supply performance” amid the pandemic, while senior officials from Sun Pharma, Cipla, Zydus Cadila and Biocon shared insights on coping with supply chain turbulence and moving away from over-dependence on China for starting materials.

Novartis counters speculation around pandemic-related staff cutbacks in India, saying that it actually upped the number of hires across its operations since January 2020. A senior executive separately provides a buoyant outlook for the Swiss firm’s global services operations in Hyderabad, which has added a significant number of new roles.