Alcon, the global leader in eye care and a division of Novartis, today announced plans to locate its future global headquarters in the Canton of Geneva, Switzerland, following completion of its proposed spinoff from Novartis. Alcon's new global headquarters in Geneva will be the primary location for Alcon's senior corporate leadership and other corporate and commercial functions.

AstraZeneca and its partner Amgen Inc. (Amgen) today announced that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted Breakthrough Therapy Designation for tezepelumab in patients with severe asthma, without an eosinophilic phenotype, who are receiving inhaled corticosteroids/long-acting beta2-agonists with or without oral corticosteroids and additional asthma controllers.

Novartis today announced it has agreed to sell selected portions of its Sandoz US portfolio, specifically the Sandoz US dermatology business and generic US oral solids portfolio, to Aurobindo Pharma USA Inc., for USD 0.9 billion of cash plus USD 0.1 billion of potential earn-outs.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) announced that it is terminating two ongoing clinical studies evaluating domagrozumab (PF-06252616) for the treatment of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD): a Phase 2 safety and efficacy study (B5161002) and an open-label extension study (B5161004).

Boehringer Ingelheim held a groundbreaking ceremony for the construction of a new production facility for innovative drugs. This new Solids Launch facility will focus on development activities for drugs in tablet form and manufacture them for worldwide market launches.

Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPG) announces today that it has completed the sale of its Oncology franchise to Servier S.A.S. for $2.4 billion. The franchise includes the global rights to ONCASPAR® and ex-US and ex-Taiwan rights to ONIVYDE®, as well as Oncology pipeline assets. David Lee, who was previously the head of Shire's Global Genetic Diseases and Oncology franchises, will continue with Servier as CEO of its new US commercial subsidiary, Servier Pharmaceuticals.

Changing the experience of health: that's the focus of the six startups which the Bayer G4A team has included in the Accelerator program this year. The young companies from Canada, Germany, Israel, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States came out ahead of more than 1,800 competitors from 100 countries. They now have 100 days in which to intensively drive the further development of their products and solutions with expertise and investment from Bayer.