Business & Industry News Channel
Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) announced today that it completed the repurchase of Roche shares that had been held by Novartis. On 4 November 2021, Roche and Novartis had announced this repurchase. The Extraordinary General Meeting of Roche Holding Ltd passed the resolutions required for the repurchase and the capital reduction on 26 November 2021. 
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) plc today launched Target the Future, an international, multi-year initiative dedicated to advancing innovation and addressing key needs in the multiple myeloma community. The programme will provide education on progress in the field of multiple myeloma, identify key challenges the community faces, and facilitate solutions to help create a better future for patients, their caregivers and loved ones. 
Sanofi announced an equity investment of $180 million and a new strategic collaboration with Owkin comprised of discovery and development programmes in four exclusive types of cancer, with a total payment of $90 million for three years plus additional research milestone-based payments. Owkin, an artificial intelligence (AI) and precision medicine company, builds best-in-class predictive biomedical AI models and robust data sets. 
AstraZeneca and its partners have released for supply two billion doses of their COVID-19 vaccine to more than 170 countries across every continent on the planet in the last 11 months.
Approximately two-thirds of these have gone to low- and lower-middle-income countries, including more than 175 million doses delivered to 130 countries through the COVAX Facility.
Merck (NYSE: MRK), known as MSD outside the United States and Canada, and Ridgeback Biotherapeutics announced that the United Kingdom Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has granted authorization in the United Kingdom (U.K.) for molnupiravir (MK-4482, EIDD-2801), the first oral antiviral medicine authorized for the treatment of mild-to-moderate COVID-19 in adults with a positive SARS-CoV-2 diagnostic test and who have at least one risk factor for developing severe illness. Roche (SIX: RO, ROG; OTCQX: RHHBY) today announced that the European Medicines Agency's (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended the approval of the antibody combination, Ronapreve™ (casirivimab and imdevimab), for treating COVID-19 in adults and adolescents (from 12 years of age and weighing at least 40 kilograms) who do not require supplemental oxygen and who are at increased risk of their disease becoming severe, and for preventing COVID-19 in people aged 12 years and older weighing at least 40 kilograms (pre- or post-exposure prophylaxis). 
Novartis has agreed to sell 53.3 million (approximately 33%) Roche bearer shares in a bilateral transaction to Roche for a total consideration of USD 20.7 billion.
Vas Narasimhan, CEO of Novartis, said: "After more than 20 years as a shareholder of Roche, we concluded that now is the right time to monetize our investment.