Genzyme, a Sanofi company, today announced a new global initiative, vs.MS, that is designed to raise awareness of the often unspoken emotional and physical burden of relapsing multiple sclerosis (RMS) on people living with the disease and their care partners. To better understand the full burden associated with RMS, Genzyme fielded a global survey among more than 1,500 people living with RMS and their care partners across seven countries.

The New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) has published positive results from two pivotal, multi-centre, Phase III studies - AMAGINE-2 and AMAGINE-3 - demonstrating that treatment with brodalumab resulted in significant clinical improvements in patients with moderate to severe psoriasis and was superior to both placebo and ustekinumab, a leading approved treatment for psoriasis.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) has announced that new clinical data and abstracts on Esbriet® (pirfenidone) in the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) are being presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) congress in Amsterdam. A pooled analysis from the ASCEND and CAPACITY phase III studies showed a 38% reduction in risk of death (p=0.0515) in IPF patients who stayed on Esbriet treatment up to two years (120 weeks) compared with placebo.(1)

Merck, a leading company for innovative, top-quality high-tech products in healthcare, life science and performance materials, expects the Latin America region to keep driving growth at its Consumer Health business, as demand for consumer goods in the region is constantly rising.

Novartis today announced the launch of Novartis Access, a portfolio of 15 medicines to treat chronic diseases in low- and low-middle-income countries. The portfolio addresses cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, respiratory illnesses, and breast cancer and will be offered to governments, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and other public-sector healthcare providers for USD 1 per treatment, per month.

Novartis today announced updated data from the Phase III COMBI-v study showing a significant overall survival benefit for patients with BRAF V600E/K mutation-positive metastatic melanoma when treated with the combination of Tafinlar® (dabrafenib) + Mekinist® (trametinib) compared to vemurafenib monotherapy.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) and Moffitt Cancer Center today announced that they have entered into a collaboration agreement as part of Bristol-Myers Squibb's Immuno-Oncology Rare Population Malignancy (I-O RPM) program in the U.S. The I-O RPM program is a multi-institutional initiative with academic-based cancer centers focused on the clinical investigation of immuno-oncology therapeutics as potential treatment options for patients with high risk, poor prognostic cancers, defined as a rare population malignancy.