The European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has been formally notified by Sanofi Pharma Bristol-Myers Squibb SNC of its decision to withdraw its application for a centralised marketing authorisation for the medicine DuoPlavin (fixed-dose combination tablets of 75 mg clopidogrel/75 mg acetylsalicylic acid and 75 mg clopidogrel/100 mg acetylsalicylic acid).

Amgen (NASDAQ: AMGN) posted to the company's Web site grants and donations made by the Amgen Medical Education department (AmgenMED) and the Amgen Foundation. The posting is the latest element of Clearly Amgen, a section of the Company's Web site designed to provide clear and easy access to Amgen's policies and practices.

Pfizer Inc announced that Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) 80 mg significantly reduced the risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attack and stroke, by 27 percent in patients with heart disease who had previous coronary bypass surgery compared with patients taking the 10 mg dose of Lipitor.

In the first quarter of 2008, Nycomed’s adjusted EBITDA increased by 6.2% to € 304.0 million compared to € 286.3 million in the first quarter of 2007, benefiting from the cost decreasing effects of last year's restructuring.

Five Prime Therapeutics, Inc. and Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) today announced the initiation of a worldwide collaborative research and license agreement. The collaboration will focus on the discovery of antibody targets and novel therapeutic protein products to treat certain areas of cancer and diabetes.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK plc) announced that the European Commission has granted a marketing authorisation for its H5N1 adjuvanted pre-pandemic vaccine, Prepandrix™, in all 27 EU member states. GSK is the first company to obtain a European licence for a pre-pandemic vaccine, thereby offering European governments the potential for protecting their population in advance or at the onset of an officially declared influenza pandemic.

Bayer HealthCare and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today announced that Nexavar® (sorafenib) tablets significantly improved overall survival by 47.3 percent (HR=0.68; p-value=0.014) in patients in the Asia-Pacific region with advanced hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or primary liver cancer, versus those receiving placebo.