Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) and the Institut Pasteur announced the creation of the Sanofi-Institut Pasteur Awards to encourage scientific excellence in the service of health.

Merck's Executive Board presented initial plans for an efficiency program spanning all businesses and regions to the Supervisory Board and relevant employee representative bodies.

Xencor, Inc., a company using its proprietary Protein Design Automation® (PDA) platform technology to engineer next-generation antibodies, and Boehringer Ingelheim announced a collaboration agreement for certain Xencor biosuperior monoclonal antibodies.

AstraZeneca (NYSE: AZN) announced that the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) has updated its guidelines on Antithrombotic Therapy and Prevention of Thrombosis to include a recommendation for giving the oral antiplatelet medicine, BRILINTA® (ticagrelor) tablets with low-dose aspirin to patients who suffer from Acute Coronary Syndrome (ACS).

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceutical (SSE Code: 600267), a leading pharmaceutical company in China, signed a framework agreement, advancing their previously announced memorandum of understanding (MOU) to establish a joint venture to develop, manufacture and commercialize off-patent pharmaceutical products in China and global markets.

Top-line results with VEGF Trap-Eye (aflibercept injection) after one year of treatment in the Phase 3 GALILEO study in patients with macular edema due to central retinal vein occlusion (CRVO) confirm the primary endpoint results that were seen after 24 weeks from the two pivotal trials, GALILEO and COPERNICUS.

The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has awarded three new grants to improve prevention, diagnosis and care of hepatitis B (HBV) and hepatitis C (HCV) in China and India as part of its Delivering Hope™: Awareness, Prevention and Care umbrella program which is committed to reducing hepatitis-related health disparities in Asia.