Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced the signing of a non-binding Memorandum of Understanding with Chinese biotech company GenScript for a strategic alliance focusing on plasmid and viral vector manufacturing.

The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Orphan Drug Designation (ODD) for saracatinib, a potential new medicine for the treatment of idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF), a type of lung disease that results in scarring (fibrosis) of the lungs. Saracatinib is an inhibitor of src kinase which regulates broad cell functions including cell growth and cell differentiation.

At the Annual Meeting of the Global Chagas Disease Coalition in Barcelona, Spain, Novartis announced that it is joining the Coalition as a member contributor. In addition, the company announced its commitment to launch a multinational, prospective, randomized study with heart failure drug, Entresto® (sacubitril / valsartan), in people with chronic Chagas cardiomyopathy, one form of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction.

Merck, a leading science and technology company, today announced a collaboration agreement with Iktos, for the use of its generative modelling artificial intelligence (AI) technology, in order to facilitate the rapid and cost-effective discovery and design of promising new compounds.

Sandoz, a Novartis division, announced the winners of the 2019 Sandoz Healthcare Access Challenge (HACk). Sandoz HACk invites entrepreneurs and innovators in the field of digital technology to submit ideas with the potential to complement - or even positively disrupt - established approaches to driving access to healthcare.

The Bayer Cares Foundation recently presented the 2018 Aspirin Social Innovation Awards to five international initiatives for their groundbreaking ideas in the fields of healthcare and nutrition. The award-winners are all impact pioneers whose concepts have the potential to bring about sustainable, systematic changes to thus improve the living conditions of hundreds of millions of people worldwide.

Novo Nordisk announced publication of results from the SUSTAIN 9 Phase 3b trial in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology. The objective of this 30 week trial was to assess the efficacy and safety of Ozempic® (semaglutide) 1.0 mg when added to SGLT-2 inhibitor (SGLT-2i) therapy.