An observational study of a large United Kingdom primary care database showed that switching patients from Pfizer's Lipitor® (atorvastatin calcium) Tablets to simvastatin was associated with a 30 percent increase in the relative risk of major cardiovascular events, including heart attacks, strokes and certain types of heart surgeries, or death compared to patients who remained on Lipitor therapy.

Novo Nordisk announced that with effect from 1 January 2008 the company has appointed Martin Soeters to take up the position as senior vice president of Region Europe. Martin Soeters is currently senior vice president of Novo Nordisk North America and president of Novo Nordisk Inc., the company's US affiliate. Martin Soeters will be replaced by Jerzy Gruhn who will take up the position as senior vice president of Novo Nordisk North America from the same date. Jerzy Gruhn is currently vice president of the Europe East region within Region Europe.

AstraZeneca today announced a strategic partnership with Peking University 3rd Hospital to open its first Clinical Pharmacology Unit (CPU) in China. The unit aims to enhance local clinical research capabilities and speed up access to new medicines to benefit Chinese patients.

Sandoz has become the first company to develop and receive European Commission approval for its biosimilar epoetin alfa, achieving another important milestone in its efforts to bring high quality, cost-effective biological medicines to patients. The European Commission's decision to grant this approval followed a positive opinion in June from the European Medicines Agency's Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), which reviews medicines scientifically for the Commission.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda") announced that its investigational compound TAK-536 has entered into Phase 2 clinical stage in Japan. TAK-536 is an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) discovered by Takeda and its mechanism of action is to lower blood pressure by inhibiting action of a vasopressor hormone Angiotensin II.

Patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or angioplasty, experienced nearly 50 percent less bleeding at 30 days and comparable mortality at one-year when treated with Angiox(R) (bivalirudin) alone compared to unfractionated heparin or enoxaparin plus a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (GPI), according to data from the ACUITY trial.

Meda announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire all shares in MedPointe. This strategic acquisition has now been completed and consolidation of MedPointe starts immediately. Meda plans to give further information on the acquisition and its impact on Meda in the interim report for the third quarter - to be released on 30 October 2007.