Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) and the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) announced the launch of StemBANCC, a new academic–industry partnership that unites ten pharmaceutical companies and 23 academic institutions.

Novo Nordisk announced a unique partnership to form Team Novo Nordisk, a global sports team with more than 100 cyclists, triathletes and runners who all have diabetes, spearheaded by the world's first all-diabetes pro-cycling team.

GSK welcomes the publication of the third Access to Medicines (ATM) Index, which measures the performance of the top 20 pharmaceutical companies on their efforts to improve access to medicines and healthcare in developing countries. GSK has been ranked top of the Index in 2012 for the third time of publishing,

Sanofi (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) ranked third among twenty pharmaceutical companies on the 2012 Access to Medicine Index (ATM Index) created by the Access to Medicine Foundation, an international non-profit organization dedicated to improving access to medicine to societies in need.

Novartis will highlight more than 140 presentations on key data from its extensive oncology portfolio at the leading year-end scientific meetings devoted to hematology and breast cancer, demonstrating continued innovation in research and development efforts to advance the care of patients with cancer and rare diseases.

Novartis announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the use of Flucelvax® (Influenza Virus Vaccine), the first cell-culture-derived vaccine, for individuals 18 years of age and older[3]. Flucelvax utilizes full-scale cell-culture manufacturing technology, an alternative production method to traditional egg-based production[1].

Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) and Boston Children's Hospital today announced a three-year, broad research collaboration in rare diseases. The goal of the collaboration is to develop novel therapies to treat a number of rare pediatric diseases with high unmet medical need, thereby leveraging Boston Children's research expertise and Shire's development and commercialization capabilities.