Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and Zhejiang Hisun Pharmaceuticals (SSE stock code 600267), a leading pharmaceutical company in China, jointly announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MOU) on their intention to establish a joint venture.

Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) has entered in to a clinical collaboration agreement with Roche (SIX:RO; OTCQX:RHHBY) to evaluate the utility of Bristol-Myers Squibb's CTLA-4 inhibitor, YERVOY (ipilimumab), in combination with Roche's investigational oral BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, in treating patients with a specific type of metastatic melanoma.

Novartis will showcase data from 140 abstracts on its current oncology products and investigational agents at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO).

AstraZeneca and Heptares Therapeutics have entered a four-year collaboration focused on the potential discovery and development of new medicines targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE:SNY) and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) announced a three-year research collaboration agreement for the research of new treatments for nine neglected tropical diseases (NTDs), listed by the World Health Organization (WHO) for which new, adapted, and efficient tools are urgently needed to treat patients in endemic countries.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced new data from the ACT-RAY study, presented at the European League Against Rheumatism congress. The results demonstrated that in people with rheumatoid arthritis (RA), RoACTEMRA (tocilizumab, known as ACTEMRA outside Europe) alone had comparable clinical efficacy to RoACTEMRA plus methotrexate (MTX).

Pfizer Inc. announced strategic partnerships with ICON plc and PAREXEL International Corporation, both of which will serve as strategic providers of clinical trial implementation services over a five-year period beginning in June 2011.