→ GSK CEO Em­ma Walm­s­ley has ral­lied to­geth­er with some of the UK’s most suc­cess­ful busi­ness­women to high­light the pay dis­crim­i­na­tion they face in com­par­i­son to their male coun­ter­parts in the cam­paign #MeToo­Pay. The web­site lament­ed the frus­tra­tions of the women, stat­ing, “we’re frus­trat­ed to still read sto­ries about women not get­ting the pay they de­serve. Women should not be paid less than men to do ex­act­ly the same job. It’s just wrong.”

Walm­s­ley’s pay­check is one of the low­est in the in­dus­try — last year earn­ing a $1.3 mil­lion raise with her to­tal re­mu­ner­a­tion be­ing $7.67 mil­lion — trail­ing be­hind her male peers.

→ Al­most a month af­ter Christo­pher Starr co-founder Monopar Ther­a­peu­tics an­nounced the terms for a $40 mil­lion IPO, the com­pa­ny is now post­pon­ing it, cit­ing mar­ket con­di­tions. The com­pa­ny had filed to of­fer 4.4 mil­lion shares at the price range of $8 to $10 and planned to list un­der the tick­er $MN­PR.

→ VIVUS has paid down $48.6 mil­lion of its Se­nior Se­cured Notes due in 2024. CEO of VIVUS, John Amos, said: “The $48.6 mil­lion re­pay­ment an­nounced to­day is the first of these steps and will re­sult in a net sav­ings of in­ter­est of $10.5 mil­lion over the re­main­ing term of the loan.” In ad­di­tion, the com­pa­ny an­nounced the de­par­ture of two of their ex­ecs — pres­i­dent Ken Suh and COO Scott Oehrlein.

→ Months af­ter Ve­rastem nabbed ap­proval for its PI3K drug du­velis­ib (Copik­tra), the com­pa­ny re­ceived more good news this morn­ing with the se­cur­ing of or­phan des­ig­na­tion for the drug for the treat­ment of T-Cell lym­phoma. Cur­rent­ly, Copik­tra is ap­proved for the treat­ment of chron­ic lym­pho­cyt­ic leukemia/small lym­pho­cyt­ic lym­phoma (CLL/SLL) af­ter at least 2 pri­or ther­a­pies and ac­cel­er­at­ed ap­proval in fol­lic­u­lar lym­phoma (FL) af­ter at least 2 pri­or sys­temic ther­a­pies in the US.

With just days before President Joe Biden’s Covid-19 booster rollout is set to go into effect, an FDA advisory committee appeared on the verge of not recommending boosters for anyone in the US before a last-minute change of wording laid the groundwork for older adults to have access to a third dose.

The FDA’s adcomm on Vaccines and Related Biological Products (VRBPAC) roundly rejected Pfizer/BioNTech booster shots for all individuals older than 16 by a 16-2 vote Friday afternoon. Soon after, however, the agency posed committee members a new question limiting booster use to the 65-and-older population and individuals at high risk of disease due to occupational exposure or comorbidities.

AstraZeneca and Japanese drugmaker Daiichi Sankyo think they’ve struck gold with their next-gen ADC drug Enhertu, which has shown some striking data in late-stage breast cancer trials and early solid tumor tests. Getting into earlier patients is now the goal, starting with Enhertu’s complete walkover of a Roche drug in second-line breast cancer revealed Saturday.

Enhertu cut the risk of disease progression or death by a whopping 72% (p=<0.0001) compared with Roche’s ADC Kadcyla in second-line unresectable and/or metastatic HER2-positive breast cancer patients who had previously undergone treatment with a Herceptin-chemo combo, according to interim data from the Phase III DESTINY-Breast03 head-to-head study presented at this weekend’s #ESMO21.

In recent months, the battle for PD-(L)1 dominance has spilled over into early cancer with Merck’s Keytruda and Bristol Myers Squibb’s Opdivo all alone on the front lines. Keytruda now has another shell in its bandolier, and it could spell a quick approval.

Keytruda cut the risk of relapse or death by 35% over placebo (p=0.00658) in high-risk, stage 2 melanoma patients who had previously undergone surgery to remove their tumors, according to full data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-716 presented Saturday at #ESMO21.

Merck has worked hard to bring its I/O blockbuster Keytruda into earlier and earlier lines of therapy, and now the wonder drug appears poised to make a quick entry into early advanced cervical cancer.

A combination of Keytruda and chemotherapy with or without Roche’s Avastin cut the risk of death by 33% over chemo with or without Avastin (p=<0.001) in first-line patients with persistent, recurrent or metastatic cervical cancer, according to full data from the Phase III KEYNOTE-826 study presented Saturday at #ESMO21.

Tobacco giant Philip Morris now has crossed the 50% threshold it needs for shareholder backing for its controversial, $1.5 billion takeover of asthma inhaler maker Vectura.

Investors have accepted a $2.28-per-share offer from the company behind Marlboro cigarettes, according to Sky News — and those investors represent nearly 75% of the company’s shares.

Acquiring the British inhaler maker is only a part of Philip Morris’ long term plan to develop “smoke-free” products, with a desire to ultimately become a “broader healthcare and wellness” company.