Pfizer recorded the largest quarterly sales in its history as its COVID-19 franchise easily outweighed the currency issues that are challenging other companies. But expectations for a quick end to the pandemic have wiped these gains from Pfizer’s stock price.

Bristol-Myers Squibb's CCO Murdo Gordon has exited the company in the week of its Q2 results, while Trevi Therapeutics, Turnstone Biologics, Aeglea BioTherapeutics, Acadia Pharmaceuticals, NanoViricides and Waverley Pharmaceuticals add to their C-suite. Medical heads join Epizyme and Astellas Americas.

The renewed break-out of a frighteningly deadly virus with no known cure or vaccine in a region that will shortly host a couple of million international pilgrims has prompted a rash of recent headlines linking Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS), the SARS-like coronavirus that first emerged in Saudi Arabia in 2012, and the annual Hajj to Mecca.

AbbVie became the latest firm to test the FDA "voucher" strategy as a pathway to success – entering into a $350m deal with United Therapeutics in an effort to get an experimental medicine to the market quicker.