Business & Industry News Channel
Bayer HealthCare AG and Onyx Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced the full results from their first collaborative group-sponsored randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled Phase II trial showing that Nexavar® (sorafenib tablets) in combination with the oral chemotherapeutic agent, capecitabine, significantly extended progression-free survival in patients with advanced breast cancer by 74 percent. 
Boehringer Ingelheim, a global pharmaceutical group of companies, together with its U.S. animal health business Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, Inc., has entered into an agreement with Pfizer to acquire certain assets of Wyeth Pharmaceutical's Fort Dodge Animal Health business upon the closing of the global Pfizer-Wyeth merger, which is expected to occur early in the fourth quarter. 
Nycomed today announced its decision to invest in a state-of-the-art pharmaceutical production plant near the city of Yaroslavl in Russia. The company plans to invest between €65 million to €75 million. The new facility will produce medicines for the local Russia-CIS market, which contributes 10% to Nycomed's turnover and plays an important role in the company's growth strategy. 
Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) and Wyeth (NYSE: WYE) announced that they have entered into an agreement with Boehringer Ingelheim to divest certain animal health assets in connection with the regulatory approval process associated with Pfizer's pending acquisition of Wyeth. Under the terms of the agreement, Boehringer Ingelheim will acquire products, research and manufacturing facilities, located in Fort Dodge, Iowa, as well as related assets and intellectual property, primarily from Wyeth's Fort Dodge Animal Health portfolio in the U.S. and Canada. The European Respiratory Society (ERS) is delighted to announce that Dr. Benjamin John Marsland, Faculté de Biologie et de Médecine, Service de Pneumologie, Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois, Lausanne, Switzerland is this year's winner of the Society's annual award for research in the field of Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD).
The OASIS study group has presented initial results of the CURRENT-OASIS 7 clinical trial at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Barcelona. Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN, and NYSE: SNY) and Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE: BMY), co-commercialization and co-development partners for PLAVIX® (clopidogrel bisulfate), were sponsors of the study.
Eli Lilly and Company (NYSE: LLY) has unveiled a new operating model and announced a series of changes to speed medicines from its pipeline to patients. To help achieve this goal, the company will establish a Development Center of Excellence to streamline and accelerate late-stage development of new medicines, and will reorganize its pharmaceutical business into four business units that will operate alongside the Elanco animal health business unit. In addition, the company has set a goal to significantly reduce its cost structure by the end of 2011.