Fol­low­ing in As­traZeneca’s car­bon-re­duced foot­steps, No­var­tis an­nounced new sus­tain­abil­i­ty tar­gets on Tues­day, which in­clude plans to neu­tral­ize sup­ply chain emis­sions in the next 10 years.

The Swiss phar­ma aims to be car­bon-neu­tral in its own op­er­a­tions by 2025, and across its sup­ply chain by 2030. To get there, it says it will re­duce ab­solute emis­sions by 35% across its val­ue chain, and fol­low a “dual strat­e­gy” to de­crease en­er­gy and fu­el con­sump­tion, im­prove ef­fi­cien­cy and adopt re­new­able en­er­gy sources. It au­dit­ed all ma­jor sites for po­ten­tial im­prove­ments.

“We have a long­stand­ing, com­pre­hen­sive en­er­gy and cli­mate pro­gram, which aims to im­prove en­er­gy ef­fi­cien­cy for all in­dus­tri­al and com­mer­cial op­er­a­tions and use re­new­able en­er­gy sources where avail­able and fea­si­ble,” the com­pa­ny stat­ed.

No­var­tis tout­ed what it’s al­ready do­ing to pre­serve the en­vi­ron­ment, in­clud­ing se­ques­ter­ing car­bon through forestry projects in Colom­bia, Mali, Chi­na and Ar­genti­na. It plant­ed 800 hectares of trees at the San­to Domin­go Es­tate in Ar­genti­na in 2007, then added 2,250 hectares in the fol­low­ing three years. By 2040, the com­pa­ny ex­pects to col­lect up to 2 mil­lion tons of car­bon diox­ide equiv­a­lents through the project. It al­so boast­ed of its Texas wind farm, and says it has sim­i­lar plans to achieve green en­er­gy in Eu­rope.

“Af­ter the suc­cess­ful com­ple­tion of a re­new­able pow­er pur­chase agree­ment in the US that achieved car­bon neu­tral­i­ty in that mar­ket for pro­cured elec­tric­i­ty we are now ac­tive­ly pur­su­ing a pan-Eu­ro­pean pow­er pur­chase agree­ment that will achieve the same, de­car­boniz­ing our pur­chased elec­tric­i­ty in one of our largest re­gions of op­er­a­tions and elim­i­nat­ing tran­si­tion risk as­so­ci­at­ed with car­bon pric­ing,” No­var­tis’ CDP cli­mate change in­for­ma­tion re­quest states.

The an­nounce­ment comes about 7 months af­ter UK-based As­traZeneca com­mit­ted to achiev­ing neg­a­tive car­bon emis­sions across its val­ue chain by 2030. The com­pa­ny will in­vest up to $1 bil­lion in its “Am­bi­tion Ze­ro Car­bon” strat­e­gy, which in­cludes us­ing re­new­able en­er­gy for pow­er and heat, and switch­ing to a 100% elec­tric ve­hi­cle fleet five years ahead of sched­ule.

“Cli­mate change is an ur­gent threat to pub­lic health, the en­vi­ron­ment and the sus­tain­abil­i­ty of the glob­al econ­o­my. Since 2015, we have re­duced our car­bon emis­sions from op­er­a­tions by al­most a third and our wa­ter con­sump­tion by al­most one fifth,” As­traZeneca CEO Pas­cal So­ri­ot said in a state­ment.

Eli Lilly has succeeded in its attempt to get the first non-covalent version of Bruton’s tyrosine kinase, or BTK, inhibitors to market, pushing it past rival Merck.

The FDA gave an accelerated nod to Lilly’s daily oral med, to be sold as Jaypirca, for patients with relapsed or refractory mantle cell lymphoma.

The agency’s green light, disclosed by the Indianapolis Big Pharma on Friday afternoon, catapults Lilly into a field dominated by covalent BTK inhibitors, which includes AbbVie and Johnson & Johnson’s Imbruvica, AstraZeneca’s Calquence and BeiGene’s Brukinsa.

The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee (VRBPAC) voted unanimously in favor of “harmonizing” Covid vaccine compositions, meaning all current vaccine recipients would receive a bivalent vaccine, regardless of whether they’ve gotten their primary series.

The vote marks an effort to clear up confusion around varying formulations and dosing schedules for current primary series and booster vaccines, as well as “get closer to the strains that are circulating,” according to committee member Paul Offit, professor of pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia.

The CDMO arm of one of South Korea’s largest conglomerates has posted its year-end results and plans for 2023, which include new construction.

Samsung Biologics netted north of KRW 3 trillion ($2.4 billion) in 2022 revenue and an operating profit of KRW 983.6 billion ($799 million), which the company touted on Friday as “record-high earnings.” The revenue boost was 55% compared to 2021.

Novartis’ sickle cell drug, approved in 2019 and branded as Adakveo, has failed an ongoing Phase III, according to preliminary results.

The Swiss pharma giant unveiled early data from the ongoing STAND Phase III study on Friday, saying that crizanlizumab showed no statistically significant difference between the drug at two different dose levels compared to placebo in annualized rates of vaso-occlusive crises that lead to a healthcare visit over the first year since being randomized into the trial.

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) is calling on senior Federal Trade Commission officials to “closely scrutinize” two proposed pharma mergers.

Warren expressed concern over “rampant consolidation in the pharmaceutical industry,” in particular Amgen’s $28 billion plans to take over Horizon Therapeutics, and Indivior’s proposed acquisition of Opiant for $145 million upfront, in a letter to FTC Chair Lina Khan and Commissioners Alvaro Bedoya and Rebecca Kelly Slaughter earlier this week.