India's draft revised ethical guidelines for biomedical and health research involving human participants covers a raft of new and existing segments. It expands on "specialized" areas such as "informed consent" and "vulnerability" – complex and delicate issues in the Indian context - but some experts say that the multiplicity of "overlapping" rules and guidelines could complicate compliance efforts.

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.

Lundbeck seeks to ward off Alembic and Hetero over alleged patent infringing activity pertaining to its depression therapy vortioxetine in India. The product is seen as one of the key drivers of growth in 2021 for the Danish company, which has settled infringement proceedings with over half a dozen generic opponents so far in the US.