Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) today announced an innovative partnership with CrowdMed, a Web-based technology that harnesses "the wisdom of crowds" to solve difficult medical cases online. Starting January 1, 2016, CrowdMed will be offered as a pilot to US Shire employees and covered dependents.

Novartis announced today that it has reached a delivery milestone of 300 million pediatric antimalarial treatments supplied without profit since 2009, helping to reduce the disease burden for children in more than 30 malaria-endemic countries.

AstraZeneca announced plans to test a digital support service for women undergoing treatment for recurrent platinum-sensitive high-grade ovarian cancer in clinical trials of cediranib plus olaparib. Voluntis has developed the service in close clinical collaboration with AstraZeneca and the US National Cancer Institute (NCI).

Janssen-Cilag International NV announced new data from the ongoing Phase 1/2 GEN503 investigational study showing the human CD38-directed monoclonal antibody daratumumab, in combination with lenalidomide and dexamethasone, yielded an overall response rate (ORR) of 81 percent in relapsed or refractory multiple myeloma patients who had received a median of two prior therapies.

GlaxoSmithKline (LSE/NYSE: GSK) today announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Nucala® (mepolizumab) as an add-on treatment for severe refractory eosinophilic asthma in adult patients. As a result Nucala is now approved for use in the 31 European countries covered by the European Medicines Agency (EMA).

Roche (SIX: RO, ROG: OTCQX: RHHBY) and Upsher-Smith Laboratories, Inc. (Upsher-Smith), through its wholly-owned UK subsidiary Proximagen Ltd., announced a worldwide agreement for the further development of a novel, oral small molecule inhibitor of Vascular Adhesion Protein 1 (VAP-1), a cell-adhesion molecule that may be effective in the treatment of inflammatory diseases.

To mark World AIDS Day, the Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation today announced 16 grants totaling $3.5 million for programs in Africa that strengthen HIV services for adolescents and the elderly, raise awareness and access to health care for women co-diagnosed with HIV and breast or cervical cancer, and build community capacity and integrate treatment for HIV/tuberculosis (TB) co-infection.