Merck, a leading company for innovative and top-quality high-tech products in the pharmaceutical, chemical and life science sectors, and Sigma-Aldrich today announced that they have entered into a definitive agreement under which Merck will acquire Sigma-Aldrich for $17.0 billion (€13.1 billion), establishing one of the leading players in the $130 billion global life science industry.

AstraZeneca and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) today announced an agreement to jointly develop and commercialise AZD3293, an oral beta secretase cleaving enzyme (BACE) inhibitor currently in development as a potential treatment for Alzheimer's disease.

For the sixth consecutive year, Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) has been recognised by the Dow Jones Sustainability Indices (DJSI) as the Group Leader in sustainability within the Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology & Life Sciences Industry. This places Roche amongst the top 10 percent of companies across all surveyed industries.

GSK has announced a £5m collaboration with the UK and South African Medical Research Councils, to support much-needed research into non-communicable diseases (NCDs) in Africa, as part of GSK's Africa NCD Open Lab initiative.

Data presented at the European Respiratory Society (ERS) Congress today confirm the safety profile and the sustained efficacy of Adempas® (riociguat) over at least two years of treatment in patients with inoperable chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension (CTEPH) or persistent or recurrent CTEPH after surgical treatment, and in patients with pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH).

AstraZeneca today announced that it has entered into a research collaboration with Redx Pharma Limited to discover and develop new molecules targeting a genetic driver of tumour growth and survival. The research will complement AstraZeneca's strategic approach focused on genetic drivers of cancer and mechanisms of resistance to established and novel cancer therapies.

At the European Society of Cardiology congress and published simultaneously in the New England Journal of Medicine, Novartis revealed that its investigational heart failure medicine, LCZ696, was superior to ACE-inhibitor enalapril on key endpoints in the largest heart failure study ever done[1],[6].