Roche announced that its ownership stake in Chugai will increase from 50.1% to 59.9% following the successful completion of the tender offer which started on 23 May. Chugai shareholders had the opportunity to tender their shares at a price of Yen 1,730 per share, which reflects a premium of 11.7% over Chugai’s share price of Yen 1,549 at the close of trading on 21 May 2008.

A house is the one place where a family should feel safe and secure, yet it is here that teens are prone to get prescription drugs to misuse and abuse. To help prevent teen prescription drug misuse and abuse, the Partnership for a Drug-Free America(R) and Abbott today launched "Not In My House", a national education initiative that provides parents with useful information and tips to help them limit teen access to medicines.

Bayer and Barr Laboratories Inc. today signed supply and licensing agreements for Yasmin® and YAZ® for the United States. Bayer will supply U.S. generics manufacturer Barr, starting July 1, 2008 at the latest, with a generic version of its oral contraceptive Yasmin, which Barr will market solely in the United States.

GlaxoSmithKline's (GSK) cervical cancer vaccine, Cervarix TM, was confirmed as the UK Department of Health's vaccine of choice for its national human papillomavirus (HPV) immunisation programme.

Pfizer Inc announced that it has entered into an agreement with generics manufacturer Ranbaxy Laboratories Ltd. of India and certain of its affiliates to settle substantially all their patent litigation worldwide involving Lipitor, the world’s most-prescribed cholesterol-lowering medicine.

Genzyme Corporation (Nasdaq: GENZ) announced that it has submitted marketing applications in both the United States and the European Union for Mozobil™ (plerixafor), a product candidate intended to enhance mobilization of hematopoietic stem cells for collection and subsequent autologous transplantation in patients with lymphoma and multiple myeloma.

AstraZeneca and Columbia University Medical Center in New York announced that they have entered into a strategic research collaboration in metabolic related diseases, to develop novel therapeutics primarily in type 2 diabetes and obesity and, with a secondary focus on atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries)/dyslipidaemia (abnormal blood lipid levels).