Seven pharmaceutical companies and four research institutions, working with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, have launched a ground breaking partnership that aims to speed the discovery of essential new treatments for tuberculosis (TB).

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Amylin Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMLN) announced that Bristol-Myers Squibb will acquire Amylin for $31.00 per share in cash, pursuant to a cash tender offer and second step merger, or an aggregate purchase price of approximately $5.3 billion.

Bayer HealthCare announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted priority review to the New Drug Application (NDA) filed end of April 2012 for the oral multi-kinase inhibitor regorafenib for the treatment of patients with metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) whose disease has progressed after approved standard therapies.

Roche site in Nutley (New Jersey, USA) to be closed - respective R&D activities to be consolidated in Switzerland and Germany. The planned site consolidation and the streamlining of research activities within Roche's Pharma Research and Early Development unit to support efficient allocation of resources for the Group's expanding product development pipeline.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that people with HER-2 positive metastatic breast cancer (mBC) lived significantly longer (overall survival) when treated with the combination of PerjetaTM (pertuzumab), Herceptin® (trastuzumab) and docetaxel chemotherapy, compared to Herceptin and docetaxel chemotherapy alone in the Phase III CLEOPATRA study.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) and Emory University announced the formation of a strategic partnership to conduct clinical trials involving Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational compounds.

AstraZeneca today announced that on Tuesday 19 June 2012 it completed its acquisition of San Diego, California-based biotechnology company Ardea Biosciences, Inc. The merger was approved by Ardea's stockholders.