Throughout 2018, Novartis took strong action to focus the company and its capital towards the Innovative Medicines Division, resulting in an industry leading pipeline. Today Novartis holds an R&D and investor update in London which will provide deeper insights into the pipeline including the below.

The Amgen Foundation today announced the expansion of the Amgen Scholars Program, a hands-on research program that allows undergraduates to spend a summer at one of many of the world's premier research institutions. The new four-year, $21 million commitment brings the program to a total of 24 elite institutions across the U.S., Europe, Asia and, for the first time, Australia and Canada.

Boehringer Ingelheim has taken an important step towards greater agility in the company with inauguration of the new building, called "BI CUBE", at the Ingelheim site. The sustainably built and innovative building was handed over to its future users at an internal ceremony.

AstraZeneca has agreed to divest the prescription medicine rights to Nexium (esomeprazole) in Europe, as well as the global rights (excluding the US and Japan) to Vimovo (naproxen/esomeprazole) to Grünenthal. The medicines are outside AstraZeneca's three main therapy areas of Oncology, Cardiovascular, Renal & Metabolism and Respiratory.

Novartis announced today that it has entered into a clinical development agreement with Pfizer which will include a study combining tropifexor and one or more Pfizer compounds for the treatment of NASH, including an Acetyl CoA-Carboxylase (ACC) Inhibitor (PF-05221304, a Diacylglycerol O-Acyltransferase 2 (DGAT2) Inhibitor (PF-06865571, and a Ketohexokinase (KHK) Inhibitor (PF-06835919).

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Xofluza™ (baloxavir marboxil) for the treatment of acute, uncomplicated influenza, or flu, in people 12 years of age and older. Xofluza is a first-in-class, single-dose oral medicine with a novel proposed mechanism of action that inhibits polymerase acidic endonuclease, an enzyme essential for viral replication.

AstraZeneca, and its global biologics research and development arm MedImmune, announced a new multi-term agreement with Innate Pharma (Innate), building on an existing collaboration, aimed at accelerating each company's oncology portfolio and bringing new medicines to patients more quickly.