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.

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.