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Pfizer Inc expects to roughly quadruple the price of its COVID-19 vaccine to about $110 to $130 per dose after the United States government's current purchase program expires, Pfizer executive Angela Lukin said on Thursday. (Erman, 10/21)

Three dozen institutional investors are urging the boards at several of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to establish concrete metrics for linking executive compensation with policies that widen access to medicines to low- and middle-income countries. (Silverman, 10/20)

Novartis AG agreed to allow generic drugmakers in seven middle-income nations to produce a leukemia treatment, the first time a voluntary license has been granted for a patented cancer drug as part of a public health initiative. (Sguazzin, 10/20)

Amid a push to widen access to medicines to poor countries, Novartis has reached an agreement to license one of its best-selling cancer treatments so that generic manufacturers can produce copies for distribution to 44 low- and middle-income nations. (Silverman, 10/20)

During the Covid-19 pandemic, America’s 53 million family caregivers gained some long overdue recognition for their vital role as unpaid extenders of an under-resourced health care workforce. The clinical trial enterprise, however, has yet to appreciate caregivers — and fully engage them — as critical partners in recruiting and supporting people who are older, disabled, or have Alzheimer’s disease, cancer, or other chronic medical conditions for research studies. (Sharon Inouye and Jason Resendez, 10/21)

The U.S. Department of Justice has asked for more details on CVS Health Corp's proposed $8 billion deal to buy Signify Health, in a possible indication that the companies face a longer deal investigation rather than a quick approval. (10/20)

A group of universities, hospitals, and life science companies is ramping up its efforts to persuade federal officials to locate a new federal health research agency in Massachusetts. The Coalition for Health Advances & Research in Massachusetts released a letter on Thursday with some 80 signatories stating that the state has the “density of resources” necessary for the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health, aka ARPA-H. (10/20)

While the organizations said they supported EPA's commitment to cleaning up sites polluted with per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, they balked at the agency's plans to use the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act to target the two most notorious compounds. EPA is currently in the process of designating PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances under the law, which will allow regulators to recoup major costs from polluters. (Crunden, 10/20)

Specialty pharmaceutical company Aquestive Therapeutics Inc has escaped a lawsuit by a group of 42 states accusing it of helping Indivior Inc use illegal tactics to shield its opioid addiction treatment Suboxone from generic competition. (Pierson, 10/20)