Top biopharma execs from Merck, Eli Lilly, Takeda and industry lobbying group PhRMA tried their best to persuade the media Wednesday that drug price negotiation bills making their way through Congress this month will be catastrophic for the industry’s bottom line.

But the pitch fell almost completely flat, with Merck’s executive chair Ken Frazier contradicting Lilly CEO David Ricks on which large companies may take the largest hit, as the execs listed a garden variety of scare tactics on how R&D will be cut in half, how massive job cuts will follow and how patient access will be severely hampered.

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The UK’s MHRA may have to lay off about 300 of its 1,200 employees, thanks to a decline in income due to reduced medical product submissions following Brexit, spurring anger among unions across the island.

Five UK unions are now demanding action from Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his government, noting that the layoffs will likely either lead to longer timelines for new drug and device submissions or “the MHRA will be reduced to effectively ‘rubber stamping’ EU regulatory decisions.”

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Eric Lander, the famed geneticist who now serves as the Biden administration’s top science advisor, unveiled a sweeping plan Friday to transform the US’ preparedness for future pandemics, drawing a parallel to the ambitious Apollo program that put the first humans on the moon.

The plan calls for $65 billion in spending over the next 7 to 10 years, including an immediate $15 billion ask in the current $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation efforts currently moving through Congress. Lander said the proposal would include funding for vaccine and drug development, as well as improving testing and pandemic detection systems.

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A class action lawsuit from two former sales representatives has been filed in US District Court, accusing Eli Lilly of age discrimination throughout its hiring process and going as far as to allege that the Big Pharma hired younger workers on the basis of physical attractiveness.

The two plaintiffs have applied to work for Lilly several times, never making it past the first interview stage, the lawsuit says. Jerad Grimes, 49, worked as a Lilly sales rep for several years before being laid off from his position in Florida, and Georgia Emily Edmondson, 55, had previously held roles in pharma, but alleges she lost out on job opportunities at Lilly to younger applicants.

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The long-running battle involving the Sackler family, owners of Purdue Pharma, and lawsuits over their role in the opioid epidemic drew to a close Wednesday, with the company dissolved and the Sacklers absolved from liability.

A bankruptcy court in southern New York approved the settlement deal, which came after much consternation from critics saying it didn’t go far enough in holding the Sacklers accountable. The family will pay about $4.5 billion over the next nine years in exchange for the protections, and Purdue Pharma will be transformed into a public benefits company aimed at fighting the opioid crisis that has led to more than 500,000 deaths in the US.

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A group of powerhouse biotech leaders is coming together to launch a new nonprofit, one aimed at delivering therapies to rare disease populations they believe pharma is leaving behind.

Jim Wilson, the famed gene therapy researcher, teamed up with the late Tachi Yamada and Braidwell’s Alex Karnal to launch the Institute for Life Changing Medicines. The institute, which officially debuts Thursday morning, will hit the ground running with a program for the ultra-rare Crigler-Najjar syndrome, planning to launch a first-in-human study later this year.

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