Sanofi Genzyme, the specialty care global business unit of Sanofi, today announced the recipients of the fifth annual Patient Advocacy Leadership (PAL) awards. The global grant program supports projects by non-profit organizations that serve patients living with lysosomal storage disorders (LSDs), a group of rare, inherited disorders that can cause progressive and debilitating health problems.

Novartis announced today a collaboration with Qualcomm Incorporated through its subsidiary, Qualcomm Life, Inc., in digital innovation with the Breezhaler(TM) inhaler device to treat COPD. Under this collaboration, Qualcomm Life will provide the technology solution for the connectivity of the next generation of the Breezhaler(TM) inhaler,

Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany, Pfizer and Syndax Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that they have entered into a collaboration agreement to evaluate avelumab*, an investigational fully human anti-PD-L1 IgG1 monoclonal antibody, in combination with Syndax's entinostat, an investigational oral small molecule that targets immune regulatory cells (myeloid-derived suppressor cells and regulatory T-cells), in patients with heavily pre-treated, recurrent ovarian cancer.

Boehringer Ingelheim today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for its novel, 3rd-generation, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation-specific tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI), BI 1482694* (HM61713**).

Bayer and CRISPR Therapeutics have entered into an agreement to create a joint venture (JV) to discover, develop and commercialize new breakthrough therapeutics to cure blood disorders, blindness, and congenital heart disease.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) today announced that it has entered into two individual agreements with ViiV Healthcare, a global HIV company, to divest its pipeline of investigational HIV medicines consisting of a number of programs at different stages of discovery, preclinical and clinical development.

AstraZeneca has entered into an agreement to invest in a majority equity stake in Acerta Pharma, a privately-owned biopharmaceutical company based in the Netherlands and US. The transaction provides AstraZeneca with a potential best-in-class irreversible oral Bruton's tyrosine kinase (BTK) inhibitor, acalabrutinib (ACP-196), currently in Phase III development for B-cell blood cancers and in Phase I/II clinical trials in multiple solid tumours.