FDA Information Technology Program Director Fred Farmer will become acting chief information officer Aug. 1 until a permanent replacement is found for departing CIO Jim Rinaldi. Rinaldi has accepted the CIO position with NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory; he became FDA's CIO in December 2002 ( 1"The Pink Sheet" Jan. 13, 2003, In Brief)...

Roche/Genentech oncology partnering maintained a robust dealmaking pace through the pandemic, keeping the percentage of partnered R&D programs at about 50% of the cancer drug pipeline.

To mitigate pandemic disruption of component supply chains, the US FDA said it will downgrade some post-approval change categories for sterile drug container closure systems. The downgrade will cover drugs in shortage and those used to treat COVID-19.