Business & Industry News Channel
Nycomed agreed with Sanofi-Aventis and Zentiva to purchase 20 branded generic products in several Central and Eastern European countries. The agreement will notably strengthen Nycomed's market position in particular in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. The transaction received approvals from the European Commission and the Czech Antimonopoly Office, and it is expected to be closed in September 2009.
More patients with advanced breast cancer could benefit from Avastin as a result of a broader label allowing Avastin to be combined with both docetaxel or paclitaxel chemotherapy, Roche announced today. In March 2007, Avastin was approved in Europe for the first-line treatment of patients with advanced breast cancer, in combination with paclitaxel. This broader label, approved today by the European Commission, means Avastin can also be combined with docetaxel, another commonly used chemotherapy, giving both patients and physicians more Avastin based therapy options. 
The pharmaceutical company Boehringer Ingelheim again posted gratifying growth in local currency (+8.3 percent) over the previous year in the first six months of 2009. Consolidated in euro, this reflected growth of + 15.7 percent thanks to the positive exchange rates, with net sales of EUR 6,388 million compared with EUR 5,522 million in the first six months of the previous year.
Amgen (NASDAQ:AMGN) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) announced a collaboration in which the companies will share commercialization of Amgen's monoclonal antibody denosumab for postmenopausal osteoporosis (PMO) in Europe, Australia, New Zealand and Mexico once the product is approved in these countries. Amgen will commercialize the drug for PMO and oncology in the United States (U.S.) and Canada and for all oncology indications in Europe and specified markets.
Nycomed announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorisation for Instanyl®, its first-in-class intranasal fentanyl spray. Instanyl is aimed at managing breakthrough pain in adult cancer patients already receiving maintenance opioid therapy for chronic pain. Roche announced that the European Union's Committee on Human Medicinal Products (CHMP) has issued a positive recommendation for the use of MabThera (rituximab) in patients with relapsed or refractory chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL). 
Merck KGaA announced today the submission of a marketing authorization application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for Cladribine Tablets, Merck’s proprietary investigational oral formulation of cladribine, as a therapy for patients with relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS).