Novartis has reached a definitive agreement with GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) to exchange certain assets, building global leadership in key segments and focusing the company's portfolio. Under the agreement, Novartis would strengthen the company's innovative pharmaceuticals business by acquiring GSK oncology products, and would divest Vaccines (excluding flu) to them.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) has announced financial results for the first quarter ended March 31, 2014. First-quarter 2014 worldwide sales of $5.2 billion increased 0.5 percent on an operational basis and decreased 2.5 percent on a reported basis, including an unfavorable 3.0 percent effect of foreign exchange.

Group sales rose 5% in the first quarter, driven by demand for cancer medicines (in particular the HER2 breast cancer franchise, Avastin and MabThera/Rituxan), as well as Actemra/RoActemra for rheumatoid arthritis. Sales of Xeloda, a chemotherapy drug, were lower as the product is now off patent and faces generic competition in the United States and Europe.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) today announced it has completed enrollment of three clinical trials to support approvals of the company's revolutionary Absorb™ Bioresorbable Vascular Scaffold (BVS) in the United States, Japan and China. Combined, the U.S., Japan and China account for more than 50 percent of the world's heart stent market.

Novartis announced today that two million treatments of its pediatric antimalarial are arriving in Zambia thanks to the ongoing efforts of the company in collaboration with Malaria No More's Power of One campaign. Zambia is the first beneficiary country of this campaign sponsored by Novartis.

Merck Serono, the biopharmaceutical division of Merck, announced that its U.S. affiliate EMD Serono has signed a research agreement with Pfizer Inc. and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts, U.S. The collaboration is focused on the genomic profiling of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE) and Lupus Nephritis (LN) patients. The research project will be jointly funded by Merck Serono and Pfizer.

Bayer HealthCare will invest around EUR 100 million to significantly increase the production capacity of its plant in Beijing, China, in preparation for further demand of its products in the country. A respective agreement was signed in Germany on the occasion of the visit of the President of the People's Republic of China, Xi Jinping, by the CEO of Bayer AG, Dr Marijn Dekkers.