Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN), the world's largest independent biotechnology company, and Astellas Pharma Inc. (Tokyo Stock Exchange: 4503, "Astellas"), a leading Tokyo-based global pharmaceutical company, announced the companies have entered into a strategic alliance to provide new medicines to help address serious unmet medical needs of Japanese patients.

Today Novartis is joining the global multiple sclerosis (MS) community in celebration of World MS Day by launching a new campaign and participating in initiatives that encourage information and experience exchange around MS. Novartis is committed to supporting the MS community through these initiatives, in addition to delivering and researching innovative treatments to help address the high unmet medical needs of people with MS at every stage of the disease.

AstraZeneca has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Omthera Pharmaceuticals, a specialty pharmaceutical company based in Princeton, New Jersey, focused on the development and commercialisation of new therapies for abnormal levels of lipids in the blood, referred to as dyslipidemia.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Eli Lilly & Company have launched an educational digital game for type 2 diabetes called Complications Combat. The game, available for desktop and iPad users, is designed to raise awareness of the many complications associated with type 2 diabetes and the challenges physicians and patients face when considering and managing these on a daily basis.

H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) has announced positive results from four pre-clinical animal studies with (vortioxetine, an investigational agent under review with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), the European Medicines Agency (EMA) and other health agencies for the treatment of major depression.

AstraZeneca today announced that it will be moving three of its cancer compounds forward to Phase III clinical development. As set out at its Investor Day in March, oncology is one of the company's core therapy areas and accelerating the development of a number of new molecular entities in its pipeline is a strategic priority.

An ambitious new partnership to save the lives of a million of the poorest children in the world has been launched by GSK and Save the Children. This unique collaboration will see the two organisations work together in a very different way, sharing expertise, resources, reach and influence to tackle some of the leading causes of childhood deaths.