As founding global partner, Bayer HealthCare joins the International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis (ISTH) today to launch the annual World Thrombosis Day. Held for the first time, World Thrombosis Day is dedicated to focusing attention on the underlying condition responsible for the three leading causes of cardiovascular death - heart attack, stroke and venous thromboembolism (VTE, or venous blood clots).

AstraZeneca has announced that The Lancet Respiratory Medicine has published positive safety and efficacy data from a Phase IIb study evaluating benralizumab, a novel investigational monoclonal antibody, in patients with severe, uncontrolled asthma and elevated levels of eosinophils, a type of inflammatory white blood cell.

To highlight the critical need for access to eye care and regular eye examinations, Novartis and its eye care division, Alcon, are introducing new data on World Sight Day, highlighting the economic impact and burden that blindness and vision impairment can have on societies and individuals across the globe.

GSK has announced a $5 million Innovation Challenge Fund (ICF) to further encourage and advance collaborative research as part of its effort to develop bioelectronic medicines. The fund will support academic groups and small companies who want to develop solutions for GSK's Bioelectronics Innovation Challenge, which was developed by a group of leading scientists from around the world.

Novartis announced today that it has entered into a clinical collaboration with Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY) to evaluate the safety, tolerability and preliminary efficacy of three molecularly targeted compounds in combination with Bristol-Myers Squibb's investigational PD-1 immune checkpoint inhibitor, Opdivo® (nivolumab), in Phase I/II trials of patients with non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).

Bayer has completed the acquisition of the consumer care business of the U.S. pharmaceuticals group Merck & Co., Inc., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey. The transaction closed on October 1, 2014, following receipt of required antitrust approvals.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) and Kyowa Hakko Kirin (Tokyo:4151), have entered into an agreement to explore the therapeutic potential of the combination of Pfizer's PF-05082566, an investigational, fully humanized monoclonal antibody (mAb) that stimulates signaling through 4-1BB (CD-137), a protein involved in regulation of immune cell activation, proliferation and survival, with Kyowa Hakko Kirin's anti-CCR4 antibody mogamulizumab,