Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) today announced an award of a grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation to conduct a Phase 1/2 clinical trial of Pfizer's vaccine candidate against group B Streptococcus(group B strep or GBS) infection, a leading cause of neonatal sepsis, a serious life-threatening blood infection.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved TECENTRIQ® (atezolizumab) for the treatment of people with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) who have disease progression during or following platinum-containing chemotherapy, and have progressed on an appropriate FDA-approved targeted therapy if their tumour has EGFR or ALK gene abnormalities.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation joins the White House Cancer Moonshot initiative through its commitment to addressing health disparities in cancer care. In response to the Cancer Moonshot, the Foundation is committing $25 million in new funding to grantee partners to expand the current scope of community-based resources and survivorship support programs to underserved populations in the U.S.

Merck (NYSE:MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, has announced the launch of Biosimilars Clarified, a new educational website for patients, caregivers and the healthcare community that is designed to provide clear, concise and straightforward information about biosimilar medicines.

Daiichi Sankyo Company, Limited (hereafter, Daiichi Sankyo) today announced details of the application for its Take a New Challenge for Drug Discovery (TaNeDS) Europe 2017, a collaborative drug discovery initiative for universities and research institutes in Europe. TaNeDS programme was launched in Japan in 2011 to help discover new lines of research through open innovation.

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the recipients of the 2016 Grant for Oncology Innovation (GOI), who will share a €1 million grant to progress their respective research initiatives. The winners were formally awarded yesterday evening at an award presentation coinciding with the 2016 annual European Society of Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Copenhagen, Denmark.

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into an agreement with Cilag GmbH International, an affiliate of Johnson & Johnson, for the divestment of the rights to Rhinocort Aqua outside the US. Rhinocort Aqua is a nasal spray indicated for allergic and non-allergic rhinitis (inflammation of the inside of the nose), and for the treatment of nasal polyps (swelling of the nasal lining).