Boehringer Ingelheim announced that it acquired ICD Therapeutics. The acquisition includes rights to ICD's innovative MacroDel biologics-delivery platform. Boehringer Ingelheim will employ this platform for the development of novel therapeutics in collaboration with nanoPET Pharma GmbH, a former shareholder of ICD Therapeutics. 
Novartis announced that it is adding to its broad portfolio of immunomodulatory medicines with the planned acquisition of IFM Tre, a subsidiary of IFM Therapeutics LLC focused on developing anti-inflammatory medicines targeting the NLRP3 inflammasome. 
AstraZeneca and MSD, Inc., Kenilworth, NJ, US (MSD: known as Merck & Co., Inc. inside the US and Canada) today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation (BTD) for the MEK 1/2 inhibitor and potential new medicine selumetinib. AveXis, a Novartis company, today announced it signed an agreement to purchase an advanced biologics therapy manufacturing campus in Longmont, Colorado, further expanding AveXis' production capacity as it prepares to launch Zolgensma® (onasemnogene abeparvovec-xioi[1]) an investigational gene therapy awaiting global regulatory approvals for the treatment of spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) Type 1 and for future gene therapy treatments in development. Novartis today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has approved Mayzent® (siponimod) for the treatment of adults with relapsing forms of multiple sclerosis, including secondary progressive multiple sclerosis (SPMS) with active disease, relapsing remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) and clinically isolated syndrome (CIS)*. The Japanese Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) has approved Forxiga (dapagliflozin) as an oral adjunct treatment to insulin for adults with type-1 diabetes (T1D). The approval is based on data from the Phase III DEPICT clinical programme and a dedicated trial in Japanese patients (D1695C00001). Boehringer Ingelheim has filed for regulatory approval of nintedanib in patients with systemic sclerosis associated interstitial lung disease (SSc-ILD) with the FDA and EMA. Nintedanib as an anti-fibrotic medicine is already approved in more than 70 countries for the treatment of patients living with idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). 