in fact, this new drug developed by novartis was so successful in clinical trials earlier this year, that the trials were halted in order to get the drug to public more quickly. heart failure can happen for a variety of reasons, but the result is that the heart loses its ability to pump blood at a normal rate. it can affect every organ in the body, including the brain, kidneys, and the liver. the new drug, actually a combination of two drugs, works to rebalance the blood's chemistry and bring circulation back to normal. more than 8400 patients diagnosed with heart fawrld participated in the trial. some were given the new drug. some were given ace inhibitors. the patients taking ace inhibitors reduced their rate of mortality by 18%. the patients taking lcz696 reduced their mortality rate by about 20% more than that. dr. milton packer at the university of texas southwestern medical center was a consultant on that study and presented its findings today at a cardiology conference in barcelona. >> there was not only a reduction in the risk of death. there was not only a survival benefit.

novartis oncology strives to become the world's premier oncology business by consistently discoveringking novel therapies that may improve and extend the lives of people living with cancer. and by incyte corporation. incyte's vision is to become a leading biopharmaceutical company focused on improving the lives of patients with serious unmet medical needs. additional funding provided by: abbott. ironwood pharmaceuticals. janssen pharmaceuticals inc. and by w.l. gore and associates. >> mcfarland: nearly 50,000 people die each year from all types of aortic disease, more than breast cancer or aids or even motor vehicle accidents. but despite this large number, many people have never heard of thoracic or abdominal aortic aneurysms, and therefore they have no idea how to recognize the signs that a potentially life-threatening rupture may be about to occur. >> kind of lucky, isn't it? [laughs] >> yes. >> mcfarland: dr. michel makaroun is professor of surgery and the chair of vascular surgery at university of pittsburgh medical center. >> the aorta is a very large blood vessel. this is the m

are you partnering with novartis.you see a future in which you are independent and will continue to partner with drug companies or is eight point y-- it a point you don't need to work with the generics in the market? >> one thing about our company, it's been successful in the semi conductor industry. another is qualcomm or intel. we are the intelligence that's going to get pence medicines. if you think about what we are doing for the industry, it's an industry built from chemistry, they started to do biology in the 1980s and the buy logic track. what we're bringing to that industry physics. it's a powerful idea. we are tying in one of the most important medicines to the most important utilities of the 21st, which is the mobile internet. with rebuilding a really powerful new technology. >> this technology is amazing. at the end of the day, why do you need to track the medicines? why do you need a sensor to see how they're reacting? >> so appropriate use of medicine is a huge issue. they're at the front end of every hea

we reported yesterday, an experimental heart drug developed by the swiss pharmaceutical company novartis shows promising results. the new drug, currently referred to by its codename "l c z 696" may change the course of treatment and prolong the lives of patients suffering from heart failure. the results of the study on the new drug are being presented this weekend in spain at an international cardiology conference and were also published yesterday by the new england journal of medicine. for some insight, we are joined via skype from windham, new hampshire, by clyde yancy, professor of medicine and chief of cardiology at northwestern university. >> so professor yancy, there are millions of people who suffer from heart disease and heart failure. what's so differently about this drug and why does it work better than what's available today? >> thank you for the interest. there is a new therapy now that's not just an additional therapy but it is a significant improvement over what we already had. this really is better, and brings a lot of hope to a lot of people. >> and without getting too fa

an experimental drug made by novartis lowers the chance of death or hospitalization from heart failure by 20%. the drug works in part by dilating blood vessels, enabling the heart to pump more effectively. the company will seek approval of the still unnamed drug by the end of the year in this country. the results, published today in the "new england journal of medicine," were obtained during a study involving more than 8,500 people in 47 countries. the study was cut short by several months because the results were so promising. california lawmakers have passed a bill that would make the state the first in the nation to prohibit supermarkets, liquor stores, pharmacies and other businesses from using plastic bags. environmentalists say plastic bags are rarely recycled and often end up in the ocean, harming sea life. governor jerry brown must still sign the bill into law. in another matter, brown's administration is appealing june's court ruling which effectively banned tenure for teachers in that state. the court had ruled that the state's tenure system violated the state's constitution

hase it why for, novartis, made a large a deal as on of a four-way transaction. strengthened by the deal. would've seen pfizer trying to make a big move with astrazeneca roche successfully shire. has set out the real chess piece types of will. it could be their effort to get things going. >> matt campbell. thank you. let's stick with m&a. vivendi continues. telefonica italian is expected to raise stakes with an offer for the internet provider. here with an update is caroline hyde. we were talking about this on friday. bring us up to date. >> we were using analogies on friday talking about these latin lovers. trying to woo the heart of brazilian babe, gvt. we only knew that telefonica has been talking to her father and we knew they would be in discussions. -- do we have not gotten any diamond ring. there's already been a $6 billion prize. what are they coming for? pretty bling. stake tod offer a 20% vivendi, saying you can take some of me but also i will give you scan and in that game in the emerging markets in brazil. these two latin lovers are so desperate to ge

pfizer,anies are novartis, eli lilly. they're trying to improve and extend human lives.ecific mission. toare helping them do that, help them develop drugs faster, bring them to market more effectively. transform trying to the industry. a specific industry. >> this demonstrates the notion of how the software industry works. i've covered this for a long time. 28% of all software sales, that is eager than the database market. much bigger than the operating system market. what has the trend been there? >> what is happening is that it has been the case but it is accelerating. isustry specific software big as the as -- market. with cloud software, you can tackle these industry-specific problems more effectively, you can use the use of that to generate data. it is accelerating the value of industries. that we have for running custom software for their auto plants anymore. will we see more than the future, not less? custom are writing software, that was not even included. going forward, we will see less custom software. our customers are developing less custom software because t

our customers are people like pfizer, novartis, and we are delivering cloud solutions to help them withtical problems. these companies are trying to extend human life. them do that by helping them with technology that helps them develop drugs faster and bring them to market more effectively. transform anto industry, a specific industry with clouds technology. study thata demonstrated this notion of how the software industry works. it really blew my mind about the specificity. industry specific software, 28% of all software sales. i'm amazed by that. that is bigger than the database market. the operatingan systems market. has this always been the case in what has been the trend in software? >> you know, what is happening, it is been the case, but accelerating. here is the point i tell people. industry-specific software is four times as big as the erp market. with clouds software, you can tackle these problems more effectively and you can use the use of the clouds software to generate data. the value ofating industry. >> the 20% chart does not mean we have ford writing custom software for

our companies are pfizer, novartis, eli lilly.delivering cloud solutions to help them with their most critical problems. these companies are trying to improve and extend human lives. a very specific mission. we are helping them do that, to help them develop drugs faster, bring them to market more effectively. so, we are trying to transform the industry. a specific industry. >> i saw a study that demonstrated the notion of how the software industry works. i covered this for a long time, but it blew my mind, the specificity. industry-specific software is 20% of all software sales. i was amazed by that. bigger than the database market. massively. much bigger than the operating system market. has this always been the case? what has the trend been there? >> you know, what is happening, it has been the case, but it is accelerating. here is a point i tell people. industry specific software is four times as big as the e.r.p. market. with cloud software, you can tackle these industry-specific problems more effectively, you can use the use

a medication made by novartis, lowered risk by 20%.he drug was the subject of a trial involving 8500 people. the drug was halted early because the benefits were so clear cut. the results being published in the new england journal of medicine. reality of this situation is quite different. a city's struggle in china, coming up next on al jazeera america. >> i'm libby casey in washington, d.c. this week president obama rolled out new executive actions designed to improve the health care and mental health care of america's veterans. this comes in the wake of a scandal that vets waited for weeks and months to receive care at clinics like the one in phoenix, arizona. staff there cooked the books to hide long wait times and families alleged veterans waited so long for health care they died waiting for care. secretary of the va resigned because of the scandal. >> what i want you to know directly from me is that we're focused on this at the highest levels. >> reporter: the white house executive action he get veterans automatically enrolled in h

and pfizer can be on the full-on breakup and novartis has a substantial business that i think actavisould love to gobble up. lots of targets. you can slash r&d as well as bloated sales, and the general and administrative expenses too. this is how they soared higher. remember, valiant is trying to do that too. last year, actavis bought warner chill coat, a drug company we've been recommending. it's been based in inversionville -- dublin, ireland. that allowed actavis to become irish too. then from the much lower corporate tax rates in ireland. so when they buy an american drug company, they can boost the earnings by subjecting it to the lower tax regime in ireland. cooperman believes they can each boost actavis by 20%. we do know that actavis has some serious merger mojo. as they have the strongest balance sheet of any consolidator in the drug business, so they can keep doing big deals. here's a major focus, tomorrow, actavis reports. all right. this is first quarter since the forest labs acquisition. and he believes the estimates are too low. he thinks they're capable of consistently

. >> reporter: the world's four biggest drug companies, johnson and johnson, novartis, roach and pfizer223 billion last year but research on a disease that after fli-- afflicts peopln these counties is not a good incentive. >> to create a science for a cure and to develop effective treatments, the incentives are not very strong there. >> reporter: there is some hope, scientists at the u.s. national institute of allergy and infectious disease, a tax-payer functioned agency, are working hard to crack ebola's secrets. >> there is a vaccine that is promising that the announcement was made last week that it was going to be fast tracked and it will go into human trials in september and if those human trials are successful, it could become available for use in 2015. now, if that is true, that's very good news. >> reporter: good news for future victims. but too late for those who are dying now. rob reynolds, al jazeera, washington. >>> now, the rescue search after land slides in western japan was called off on friday because of safety fears. 39 people are confirmed dead and 52 more are still mi

astrazeneca and novartis is a big -- that's made big significant deals.these m&a friendly, you have where is our deal? we have to participate. that has to be going on. >> what is going on in the industry? where all of the action, the most action. and they are seeing it worldwide. >> and make a lot of money. it is a recovering economy and there are secular trends quite in particular. one is the easy drugs mostly found. it is hard to come up with a new blockbuster, it is a long time. it is often much easier to buy it and then develop it. the other is the patent. a lot of important medicines are coming off of patents. other companies, generics can start making them and that slams profits for big roche guys like and pfizer. we have these trends and one along with a recovering economy destined to be driving these pharma deals. >> matt campbell. 8:51. firstis creating a safety suv to be unveiled. the car will have crash avoidance technology to prevent drivers from pulling out too early into traffic. a windingrepresents down of ties with ford motor. volvo reemph

novartis announced it will reply for f.d.a. approval by the end of the year. >>> a group of fire fighters is praised for going above and beyond in response to the man who suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn. this photo has gone viral and shows the texas fire fighter finishing up man's yard work after taking him to the hospital. >> just happened to get off the truck first and we were all fighting over it. >> i just could not believe it they took time to do that. >> reporter: fire fighters took turns. they did the backyard too. they left a handwritten note saying we felt bad that your husband didn't get to finish the yard so we did. he did die two days later and his family says they are thankful for the fire fighters and this simple random act of kindness. >>> in an effort to conserve water during annex stream drought in california one man in california comes up with an interesting idea. he put out a sign that says brown grass is sexy. then posted it to social media his friend loved it the so much he and his sons starte

it's a twice-a-day pill calleded lzc-696 developed by the swiss fafrm suit cal giant novartis. it can significantly reduce death from heart failure. it was the largest study ever conducted, a study that was stopped early because the pill proved so effective in testing. it's already been approved by the food & drug administration. >> california has sent to the legislator that would be a law the first of its kind aimed at reducing sexual assaults on sexual advances. it's called the "yes means yes" law as terryi okita reports. >> reporter: she learned no was not enough when she was raped by a fellow student. >> i said no numerous times but after a while i stopped saying anything at all. i don't think had i said no name times versus the eight times that i did, so i just stopped talking and that could technically be used against me without this affirmative consent bill. is unique because it requires an affirmative conscious and voluntary agreement before students have sex. the legislation also says a lack of resistance or silence cannot be interpreted as a yes. ultimately whether it