Activist investor Carl Icahn (above) is dropping his bid to stop the Cigna-Express Scripts combination. Icahn said on Monday that he’ll cease asking proxies to vote against the $52 billion deal. “There’s no point in fighting just to fight,” Icahn reportedly said about stopping his opposition. (CNBC)

Bayer has linked up with an ongoing effort by Evotec and Haplogen to find treatments for pulmonary diseases, with a focus on COPD. Bayer will get global rights to anything found by the alliance. (Endpoints)

Novartis has promoted Sreejit Mohan from global drug-development communications leader to global head of external comms. Mohan has held long-term stints at Novartis subsidiary Sandoz and Bayer, where he worked in public policy and communications. (MM&M)

Gene therapy startup Orchard has raised $150 million in Series C funding from Venrock and Deerfield Management, among other investors. The company is working to develop the portfolio of gene-therapy programs it bought from GlaxoSmithKline this year. (Xconomy)

Experimental gene therapies from Spark and BioMarin are offering hope for patients with hemophilia, but results from preliminary trials have raised questions about the treatments’ long-term effectiveness. (New York Times)