Sanofi will invest approximately €400 million annually in a first-of-its kind vaccines mRNA Center of Excellence. The Center will work to accelerate the development and delivery of next-generation vaccines by bringing together approximately 400 dedicated employees integrating end-to-end mRNA vaccine capabilities with dedicated R&D, digital, and chemistry, manufacturing and controls (CMC) teams across sites at Cambridge, MA (US) and Marcy l’Etoile, Lyon (France).

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has issued an Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) for intravenous Actemra/RoActemra® (tocilizumab) for the treatment of COVID-19 in hospitalised adults and paediatric patients (two years of age and older) who are receiving systemic corticosteroids and require supplemental oxygen, non-invasive or invasive mechanical ventilation, or extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO).

Novartis and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) announced a collaboration that aims to accelerate the use of data and digital technologies within Novartis efforts to reimagine global health and improve access to healthcare and medicines.

BioNTech SE (NASDAQ: BNTX, "BioNTech" or "the Company"), announced that the first patient has been treated in its BNT111 Phase 2 cancer vaccine trial (2020-002195-12; NCT04526899). The study is evaluating the Company's therapeutic cancer vaccine candidate BNT111 in combination with Libtayo® (cemiplimab) in patients with anti-PD1-refractory/relapsed unresectable Stage III or IV melanoma.

GlaxoSmithKline plc and Vir Biotechnology, Inc. today announced final, confirmatory results from the Phase 3 COMET-ICE (COVID-19 Monoclonal antibody Efficacy Trial - Intent to Care Early) trial demonstrating that sotrovimab, an investigational SARS-CoV-2 monoclonal antibody, significantly reduced the risk of hospitalisation or death among high-risk adult outpatients with mild-to-moderate COVID-19.

AstraZeneca today welcomed the ruling by the Court of First Instance in Brussels. The European Commission had requested 120 million vaccine doses cumulatively by the end of June 2021, and a total of 300 million doses by the end of September 2021. The judge ordered delivery of 80.2 million doses by 27 September 2021.

CureVac N.V. (Nasdaq: CVAC), a clinical-stage biopharmaceutical company developing a new class of transformative medicines based on messenger ribonucleic acid ("mRNA"), today announced results of the second interim analysis of its international pivotal Phase 2b/3 study in approximatively 40,000 subjects (the HERALD study) of CureVac's first-generation COVID-19 vaccine candidate, CVnCoV.