AstraZeneca and Bristol-Myers Squibb have announced expansion of their worldwide collaboration to include the development and commercialisation of dapagliflozin in Japan. Dapagliflozin, one of two investigational drugs under joint development by the companies, is currently being studied in Phase III clinical trials in several countries, including the U.S., to assess its efficacy and safety as a once-daily treatment for type 2 diabetes.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has posted a comprehensive review conducted by GlaxoSmithKline of its clinical and observational data that demonstrated better overall asthma control with the combination medicine Seretide/Advair (fluticasone propionate and salmeterol) than with a single medicine alone.

Bayer Schering Pharma will develop and commercialise ProStrakan's Tostrex® in Canada, Latin America, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and the Pacific region. A respective agreement between Bayer Schering Pharma and ProStrakan Group plc. was signed which grants Bayer exclusive marketing rights in these regions.

Novo Nordisk has announced that it will provide diabetes care, including free insulin, to 10,000 children in some of the world's poorest countries. The five-year programme, called 'Changing the Future for Children with Diabetes', will begin in 2009 with an initial roll-out in Uganda, Tanzania, Guinea-Conakry and the Democratic Republic of Congo.

Roche and Memory Pharmaceuticals have announced that the two companies have signed a definitive merger agreement for Roche to fully acquire Memory in an all-cash transaction at a price of approximately USD 50 million.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has granted SELZENTRY™ (maraviroc) full (traditional) approval for use in treatment-experienced adults with CCR5-tropic HIV-1 in combination with other antiretrovirals. SELZENTRY was originally granted accelerated conditional approval in August 2007 based on 24-week data from pivotal Phase 3 studies. SELZENTRY now becomes the latest fully approved treatment for HIV.

AstraZeneca has entered into a settlement agreement in its Pulmicort Respules patent infringement litigation against Ivax Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Teva Pharmaceuticals USA. The agreement settles the patent infringement litigation filed by AstraZeneca following Teva's submission to the United States Food & Drug Administration of an Abbreviated New Drug Application for a generic version of Pulmicort Respules.