AstraZeneca announced today that it will start a Phase III programme for PN400, a new pain product under co-development with POZEN, Inc. The Phase III programme is scheduled to begin in 3Q 2007, with a US submission currently targeted for 1H 2009.

Bayer AG intends to file for delisting of its American Depositary Shares (ADSs) from the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE). It is also planned to deregister with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and thereby terminate the respective reporting obligations.

Novartis will keep defending its intellectual property rights for the antiviral medicine Famvir®, which has various US patents valid until 2015, after a competitor company launched its own generic version in the United States.

Boehringer Ingelheim and Ablynx, the biopharmaceutical company focused on the discovery and development of Nanobodies®, today jointly announced a major global strategic alliance to discover, develop and commercialise up to 10 different Nanobody® therapeutics.

Novartis has completed the sale of its Gerber baby foods business to Nestlé for USD 5.5 billion, the final step in a divestment program to focus the Group's strategy on healthcare with pharmaceuticals at the core.

GlaxoSmithKline announced that Atriance® (nelarabine solution for infusion) has received approval from the European Commission for the treatment of patients with T-cell acute lymphoblastic leukaemia (T-ALL) and T-cell lymphoblastic lymphoma (T-LBL) whose disease has not responded to, or has relapsed following, treatment with at least two chemotherapy regimens.[1]

In a new analysis data in the European subgroup of the large clinical study REST (Rotavirus Efficacy and Safety Trial), the five-type rotavirus vaccine RotaTeq® demonstrated 100% clinical efficacy against severe rotavirus disease for the first rotavirus season after vaccination. The efficacy remained high through two rotavirus seasons of follow up, preventing 98% of severe rotavirus cases. This new sub-analysis was presented last week at the 25th International Congress of Paediatrics in Athens.