At an Extraordinary General Meeting, Novartis shareholders approved the proposed 100% Spin-off of Sandoz, the Generics and Biosimilars business of Novartis.

Shareholders also approved an ordinary capital decrease of the share capital of Novartis AG in the amount of the share capital of Sandoz.

Vividion Therapeutics, Inc. (Vividion), announced today that it has initiated dosing of patients in a Phase I oncology clinical trial of its investigational oral Kelch-like ECH Associated Protein 1 (KEAP1) activator, VVD-130037. Vividion is a biopharmaceutical company utilizing novel discovery technologies to unlock high value, traditionally undruggable targets with precision therapeutics for devastating cancers and immune disorders, and a wholly owned and independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG.

GSK and Save the Children have announced today that they are renewing their award-winning partnership for a further five years. GSK will invest £15 million in the partnership with Save the Children and they will work together to increase child vaccination rates, with a focus on reducing the number of 'zero dose' children in Ethiopia and Nigeria.

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that the Phase III ALINA study evaluating Alecensa® (alectinib), compared with platinum-based chemotherapy, met its primary endpoint of disease-free survival (DFS) at a prespecified interim analysis. Alecensa demonstrated a statistically significant and clinically meaningful improvement in DFS as adjuvant therapy in people with completely resected stage IB (tumour ≥4cm) to IIIA (UICC/AJCC 7th edition) anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK)-positive non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Bayer AG and BlueRock Therapeutics LP, a clinical stage cell therapy company and wholly owned independently operated subsidiary of Bayer AG, announced today details of the positive data from the Phase I clinical trial for bemdaneprocel (BRT-DA01), a stem cell derived investigational therapy for treating Parkinson's disease. The data were presented at the International Congress of Parkinson's Disease and Movement Disorders® in Copenhagen, Denmark.

Novartis announced that it has completed its acquisition of Chinook Therapeutics, Inc., a Seattle, WA, based biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery, development, and commercialization of precision medicines for kidney diseases, in a transaction valued at up to USD 3.5 billion.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved ABRYSVO™ (Respiratory Syncytial Virus Vaccine), the company's bivalent RSV prefusion F (RSVpreF) vaccine, for the prevention of LRTD and severe LRTD caused by RSV in infants from birth up to six months of age by active immunization of pregnant individuals at 32 through 36 weeks gestational age.