FirstWord Pharma PLUS editors Michael Flanagan and Simon King discuss the week’s most important news in pharma and biotech including US emergency approval of Johnson & Johnson’s COVID-19 vaccine and Merck & Co.’s role in manufacturing it, the FDA’s less lenient stance on accelerated cancer drug approvals, what next for checkpoint inhibitors in China?, Amgen’s $1.9 billion acquisition of Five Prime Therapeutics and more impressive clinical data for Eli Lilly’s tirzepatide in diabetes.