The world remains under grasp of the COVID19 pandemic. Resurging waves of infection have dampened celebrations and economic activity alike across geographic regions. As we look to the global scientific community for effective vaccines and treatments, November goes down as a momentous month with some controversy but a lot of more hope. Four vaccines across global regions have reported interim results from Phase III clinical trials. More vaccines have leaped forward to the final leg of development and we are closer than before to widespread access. In our November roundup, we discuss latest status of the COVID19 vaccines, pipeline strength and implications and two other critical trends in global biopharma – active pursuit of lifecycle management strategies by innovators to ward off biosimilar competition and deepening corporate appetite for upstream investments in gene therapy.