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Amid mounting concerns over the U.S. pharmaceutical supply chain, a Department of Defense watchdog found an overreliance on foreign suppliers that could harm national security and that the Pentagon failed to assess the risks of shortages or develop strategies to mitigate disruptions. Among the shortcomings, the Defense Department did not aggregate and analyze the origins of finished medicines or active ingredients to determine the reliance on foreign suppliers or identify gaps in information about where the products are made, according to the Office of Inspector General at DOD. The OIG report also noted the military is not required to run such analyses. (Silverman, 9/23)

Six drugmakers could soon face steep fines over their refusal to discount drug prices for pharmacies that contract with 340B providers. The Health Resources and Services Administration on Wednesday sent letters to Eli Lilly, AstraZeneca, Novartis, Novo Nordisk, Sanofi and United Therapeutics, informing them that it has asked the Department of Health and Human Services' Office of the Inspector General to determine whether they should pay fines for the violations. The drugmakers could get fined more than $5,000 for each instance. (Brady, 9/23)

Biogen has certainly faced an uphill battle trying to convince physicians to prescribe the drugmaker’s highly scrutinized Alzheimer’s disease drug Aduhelm. It doesn't make it any easier if clinics won’t even let the company's sales reps through the front door. But that’s the case at the Neurology Center in Washington, D.C., which has gone so far as to ban Biogen employees from entering their seven office locations in response to the controversy shrouding the company’s new med. (Higgins-Dunn, 9/22)

Two months ago, Novartis Gene Therapies chief Dave Lennon left the company to lead a biotech startup that is operating in stealth mode. It was with similar stealth that the unit Lennon formerly headed up fell victim to a reorganization by the company. In a move that was effective in February, Novartis Gene Therapies was broken up and integrated into the company, costing nearly 150 employees their jobs, Endpoints reported on Tuesday. A spokesperson for Novartis confirmed the report in a statement emailed to Fierce Pharma. Remaining employees from the gene therapy unit now report to Novartis’ respective organizational units, including pharmaceuticals, technical operations, global drug development and biomedical research. (Dunleavy, 9/22)

First, it was powerhouse investor Elliott Management urging GlaxoSmithKline to take steps necessary to turn around its declining fortunes. Now, a much smaller but burgeoning activist investor, Bluebell Capital Partners, has taken over the tag-team match, applying pressure on GSK’s embattled CEO Emma Walmsley. In a letter to the company’s board of directors, Bluebell asked GSK to force Walmsley to reapply for her job, launch a search for new leadership and beef up the board’s scientific expertise, according to a report from the Financial Times.  (Dunleavy, 9/22)