GlaxoSmithKline plc announced it axing 120 jobs from its Australian workforce after announcing plans to shut its tablet packaging business in Melbourne as part of a business transformation. Jobs are expected to be axed around the end of 2014 or in 2015. The tablet packaging business would be transferred to factories in Aranda de Duero, Spain and Poznan, Poland.

GlaxoSmithKline plc announced the launch of Discovery Fast Track, a competition designed to accelerate the translation of academic research into novel therapies. Winners of the competition will partner with investigators on GSK's Discovery Partnerships with Academia (DPAc) team with a goal of developing viable research-stage drug candidates into innovative medicines. GSK and the academic partner share the risk and reward of innovation, where GSK funds activities in the partner laboratories, as well as provides in-kind resources to progress a program from an idea to a candidate medicine. DPAc's reach is global.

Genmab A/S announced that Genentech and Biogen Idec have filed for a re-hearing en banc (i.e. before all judges of the court) in the appeal case, where the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit recently upheld the U.S. District Court's judgment in favor of GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK). The appeal case relates to a patent infringement case involving Arzerra® brought against GSK by Genentech and Biogen Idec. Genentech and Biogen Idec claim that the decision from the US court of appeals announced on April 16, 2013 in favor of GSK was against court precedent and request the US court of appeals to reconsider the case. The court of appeals will now decide whether to grant the rehearing. Genentech and Biogen Idec originally filed the lawsuit in 2010 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California claiming that Arzerra infringed U.S. Patent No. 7,682,612 covering methods of treating Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) with CD20 antibodies. GSK denied infringement and claimed the patent was invalid and unenforceable. An initial judgement by the court in favor of GSK in December 2011 was subsequently appealed by Genentech and Biogen Idec. In April 2013 the US court of appeals upheld the original decision by the US district court in favor of GSK.