AstraZeneca today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved BRILINTA® (ticagrelor) tablets at a new 60mg dose to be used in patients with a history of heart attack beyond the first year. With this expanded indication, BRILINTA is now approved to reduce the rate of cardiovascular death, myocardial infarction (MI, also known as heart attack) and stroke in patients with acute coronary syndrome (ACS) or a history of MI.

Sanofi and the life sciences team at Google are collaborating to improve care and outcomes for people with type 1 and type 2 diabetes. The collaboration will pair Sanofi's leadership in diabetes treatments and devices with Google's expertise in analytics, miniaturized electronics and low power chip design.

Novartis has entered into a global collaboration with Amgen to commercialize and develop pioneering neuroscience treatments. The companies will partner in the development and commercialization of a BACE inhibitor program in Alzheimer's Disease (AD). Novartis' oral therapy CNP520 will be the lead molecule and further compounds from both company's pre-clinical BACE inhibitor programs may be considered as follow-on molecules.

AstraZeneca has entered into a collaboration agreement with Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. under which it will grant an exclusive license for Valeant to develop and commercialise brodalumab. Brodalumab is an IL-17 receptor monoclonal antibody in development for patients with moderate-to-severe plaque psoriasis and psoriatic arthritis.

Novo Nordisk plans to invest an estimated 2 billion US dollars over the next five years in new production facilities in Clayton, North Carolina, US and Måløv, Denmark. The expansions will help Novo Nordisk meet the increasing worldwide demand for its diabetes medicines.

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into a clinical trial collaboration with Peregrine Pharmaceuticals, Inc. to evaluate the safety and efficacy of Peregrine's investigational phosphatidylserine (PS)-signalling pathway inhibitor, bavituximab, in combination with AstraZeneca's investigational anti-PD-L1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, durvalumab (MEDI4736).

Novartis announced today that it has entered into an agreement to acquire all remaining rights to Ofatumumab from GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK). Ofatumumab, a fully human monoclonal antibody which targets CD20, is being developed for relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and other autoimmune indications.