Antiviral favipiravir brings stunning gains to Glenmark, almost equal to the entire India sales of some multinationals, as demand surged amid the ferocious second of COVID-19 in the country. Such brand build-up could have taken five to seven years in pre-pandemic times, experts said.

Dr Reddy’s initiates pilot roll-out of imported Russian vaccine Sputnik V, currently priced at about $13.50 per dose in India, and indicates that it hopes to bring the single-dose version Sputnik Light to the country. The Indian company also strikes a deal with a Chinese firm for a CAR-T cell therapy, an area where it hopes to “pick up skills”.

The UK-headquartered life sciences investment firm has comfortably exceeded its target of $350m for a fund dedicated to taking on late-stage products, incurring all the clinical and regulatory risk and receiving a pre-negotiated return once the drug is approved.

Health care delivery has been transformed over the past decade, and so has Royal Philips, whose CEO Frans van Houten explains why both were necessary, and the extra impetus for system-wide change following the COVID-19 pandemic.