On World Hypertension Day 2017, the Novartis Foundation and its partners, including Intel Corporation, the NCD Alliance, city governments and local partners, announce the launch of Better Hearts Better Cities, an innovative initiative to address the high rates of high blood pressure (hypertension) in low-income urban communities.

Today, Boehringer Ingelheim inaugurated its commercial production site for biopharmaceuticals in Zhang Jiang Hi-tech Park of Shanghai (China). The site, with the first-phase investment of more than €70 million, is the first and only biopharmaceutical facility established by a leading multinational active biopharmaceutical manufacturer in China utilizing mammalian cell culture technology.

AstraZeneca and MedImmune, its global biologics research and development arm, today announced positive results for the Phase III PACIFIC trial, a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled multi-centre trial of Imfinzi (durvalumab) as sequential treatment in patients with locally-advanced, unresectable (Stage III) non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who had not progressed following standard platinum-based chemotherapy concurrent with radiation therapy.

Sangamo Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: SGMO) and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) have announced an exclusive, global collaboration and license agreement for the development and commercialization of gene therapy programs for Hemophilia A, including SB-525, one of Sangamo's four lead product candidates, which Sangamo expects will enter the clinic this quarter.

SERMO, the largest global social network for physicians with 650,000 members worldwide, has announced the groundbreaking new "Drug Ratings" tool. Drug Ratings is the first and only global peer-to-peer prescription drug review system sourced exclusively from verified licensed physicians. With more than a quarter million ratings and 20,000 comments from doctors worldwide to date in the beta release, the Ratings platform is quickly becoming the largest global database of physician feedback on drugs.

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the acquisition of Grzybowski Scientific Inventions (GSI), a company that developed the revolutionary computer-aided retro-synthesis tool, Chematica. Chematica uses advanced reaction rules and proprietary algorithms to identify synthesis pathways that meet user-defined constraints.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced CE Mark and first use of the new Confirm RxTM Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM), the world's first smartphone compatible ICM that will help physicians identify difficult to detect cardiac arrhythmias, including atrial fibrillation (AF), to help guide therapy. Since CE Mark approval, adoption of the device has been strong and implants have occurred in 10 countries across Europe.