Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, and Pfizer (NYSE: PFE) have announced the initiation of a Phase III study, JAVELIN Ovarian 100, to evaluate the efficacy and safety of avelumab* in combination with, and/or as follow-on (maintenance) treatment to, platinum-based chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced or metastatic disease (Stage III or Stage IV) with previously untreated epithelial ovarian cancer.

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced it would continue to support the advancement of medical science in the field of fertility through the Grant for Fertility Innovation (GFI) program by awarding grants totalling €1.5 million in 2016/17.

Sanofi and its vaccines global business unit Sanofi Pasteur announced today a Cooperative Research and Development Agreement with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) on the co-development of a Zika vaccine candidate.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) and Cormorant Pharmaceuticals announced today that Bristol-Myers Squibb has acquired all of the outstanding capital stock of Cormorant, a private, Stockholm, Sweden-based pharmaceutical company focused on the development of therapies for cancer and rare diseases.

Novo Nordisk and Aarhus University's Science and Technology faculty today signed a collaboration agreement to strengthen protein technology research and development. Under the new collaboration, a total of nine PhD students will be offered three-year research scholarships.

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into agreements that support its strategic focus on three main therapy areas; Respiratory, Inflammation and Autoimmunity, Cardiovascular and Metabolic disease and Oncology. The agreements include two of AstraZeneca's potential new medicines for dermatitis and psoriasis,

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and PsiOxus Therapeutics, Ltd. (PsiOxus) today announced an exclusive clinical collaboration agreement to evaluate the safety, tolerability, and preliminary efficacy of PsiOxus' enadenotucirev, a systemically administered oncolytic adenovirus therapeutic, in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's Immuno-Oncology (I-O) agent Opdivo (nivolumab) to treat a range of tumor types in late-stage cancer patients.