McKinsey India's head of pharmaceutical and healthcare practice shares insights on pharma’s risk management efforts and accelerated deployment of digital technologies, including augmented reality headsets for shop floor operators amid the pandemic. He expects a broad surge in deal-making and says pharma is poised for a “full recovery” soon.

The goal is a platform where sponsors could enter data that multiple regulators could view in real-time, rather than rely on ‘digital paper’ – pdfs and other static file formats that require health agencies to reenter the data in order to analyze it.

Although compounding of certain shortage drugs is allowed during the public health emergency, remdesivir is off limits due to its complexity. Providers should only use the FDA-approved version of the drug, Gilead’s Veklury, the agency says.