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].

AstraZeneca has announced the results of the Phase IV ATLANTIC study, which indicates that the profile of BRILINTA/BRILIQUE™ (ticagrelor) is comparable whether administered in a pre-hospital or in-hospital setting to ST segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) patients.

A candidate Ebola vaccine could be given to healthy volunteers in the UK, The Gambia and Mali as early as September, as part of a series of safety trials of potential vaccines aimed at preventing the disease that has killed more than 1,400 people in the current outbreak in west Africa.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Merck & Co. Inc. (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, through a subsidiary, announced today that they have entered into an agreement to explore the therapeutic potential of the combination of Pfizer's crizotinib (XALKORI®) with Merck's investigational anti-PD-1 antibody pembrolizumab,

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and InterMune, Inc. (NASDAQ: ITMN) have entered into a definitive merger agreement for Roche to fully acquire InterMune at a price of US$ 74.00 per share in an all-cash transaction. This corresponds to a total transaction value of US$ 8.3 billion on a fully diluted basis.

Novartis has signed an exclusive worldwide licensing agreement with the Global Alliance for TB Drug Development (TB Alliance) for compounds to fight tuberculosis (TB) that have been discovered at the Novartis Institutes for Tropical Diseases (NITD).

AstraZeneca today announced that it has received confirmation from the United States Department of Justice that it is closing its investigation into PLATO, a clinical trial with Brilinta (ticagrelor). The government is not planning any further action.