Eli Lilly made it clear when it shelled out $1.1 billion for Dermira that lebrikizumab is really what it wanted to buy. One year in, the pharma giant is completing its cleavage of the rest.

Days after unveiling the sale of Qbexza — Dermira’s only approved product, a piece of cloth to block excessive sweating — Lilly revealed plans to close down the biotech’s Menlo Park facility, putting 163 jobs on the chopping block. The San Francisco Business Times first reported on the WARN notice filed in early April.

Biotech Voices is a collection of exclusive opinion editorials from some of the leading voices in biopharma on the biggest industry questions today. Think you have a voice that should be heard? Reach out to senior editors Kyle Blankenship and Amber Tong.

We oppose all attempts to introduce laws that reduce the rights of US citizens to vote or that restrict them from exercising that right. The right to vote is fundamental to democracy. States that have enacted, or are proposing to enact, legislation to restrict voting are undermining our democracy and posing a threat to our nation. As leaders of the life sciences industry, we stand for what we believe is right for our country, our enterprises, our employees and those who benefit from our work. We join the first groups of business leaders who have challenged these laws and will continue to make our collective voices heard on this matter.

Anand Shah has served the American public in a unique way, crisscrossing over the last two administrations between serving as an attending radiation oncologist focused on prostate cancer at NIH, serving as CMO at the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Innovation, and most recently, leading the FDA’s operations on medical and scientific affairs from within the commissioner’s office.

Shah, who stepped down from the FDA in January, caught up with Endpoints News in a phone interview on Tuesday afternoon, offering his thoughts on the agency’s latest decision to pause the J&J vaccinations in the US, and reflecting on his time at an agency during this once-in-a-lifetime pandemic.

As Amarin breaks into the European market, John Thero is heading out.

After steering the ship for 7 years, Thero is handing the CEO job to Karim Mikhail, who came on board earlier this year to head the commercialization of Amarin’s fish oil pill in Europe. Mikhail’s appointment is effective Aug. 1, when Thero will officially retire and transition to an advisor role until the end of 2021.

Since joining Amarin in 2009, Thero has been credited for a slate of achievements that gave investors lots to be excited about. Under his watch, Vascepa — the pharmaceutical grade omega-3 fatty acid product first approved in 2012 — was cruised to a positive Phase III data readout despite some controversy, spurring an impressive reduction in risk of cardiovascular events that led to a quick FDA add-on approval.

In the male-dominated world of biotech, it’s an unspoken fact that gender plays a big role in whose science eventually becomes a winner. But to what degree are male scientists favored in terms of entrepreneurial opportunity? An MIT-focused working group sought to find out.

At MIT alone, the lack of opportunities given to women has resulted in at least 40 fewer companies founded, a report published in the MIT Faculty Newsletter by the Boston Biotech Working Group found. The report’s biggest takeaway? This is not a pipeline problem. Women in the sciences are equally capable of launching their own companies given the same amount of opportunity, according to Sangeeta Bhatia, one of the report’s authors.