Novartis today opened the 13th International Biotechnology Leadership Camp (BioCamp). Over the course of three days more than 60 selected students from international universities will discuss and explore with biotechnology and business experts how patients around the world can benefit from innovative technologies.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) today announced that it has entered into an agreement with AstraZeneca to acquire the development and commercialization rights to its late-stage small molecule anti-infectives business, primarily outside the United States.

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) today announced they have received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Fast Track designation for the development programme in Alzheimer's disease for AZD3293, an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor currently in Phase III clinical trial.

Casebia Therapeutics, the joint venture founded by Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics, started its operations in Cambridge, MA, U.S. In December, 2015 Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics agreed to create a joint venture (JV) to discover, develop and commercialize new breakthrough therapeutics to cure blood disorders, blindness, and congenital heart disease.

Janssen Research & Development, LLC, one of the Janssen Pharmaceutical Companies of Johnson & Johnson, announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted a Breakthrough Therapy Designation for esketamine, an investigational antidepressant medication, for the indication of major depressive disorder with imminent risk for suicide.

Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Advaxis, Inc. (NASDAQ:ADXS) announced a global agreement for the development and commercialization of Advaxis' ADXS-NEO, a novel, preclinical investigational cancer immunotherapy treatment that is designed to activate a patient's immune system to respond against the unique mutations, or neoepitopes, contained in and identified from each individual patient's tumor.

Today Novartis announced that six scientists will receive the 2016 Novartis Prizes for Immunology at the upcoming 16th International Congress of Immunology (ICI) in Melbourne, Australia on Aug 22, 2016. The Novartis Prizes for Immunology are awarded every three years for breakthrough contributions to the fields of basic and clinical immunology.