Business & Industry News Channel
Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) announced that Sanofi-Aventis Deutschland GmbH has purchased from Pfizer the Diabel manufacturing plant in Frankfurt-Höchst, Germany, one of the largest state-of-the-art insulin manufacturing plants in the world.
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has awarded global prequalification to GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals' vaccine against rotavirus, Rotarix™.Additionally, the WHO's Strategic Advisory Group of Experts (SAGE) also recommended that rotavirus vaccination be included in all national immunisation programmes. Together, these WHO decisions open the door to making rotavirus vaccines available to children worldwide.
AstraZeneca and Abbott have entered into an agreement for AstraZeneca to co-promote Abbott's TRILIPIX, a medication for use alone or in combination with a statin to treat certain lipid disorders. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will obtain the non-exclusive right to co-promote TRILIPIX alongside Abbott in the United States, excluding Puerto Rico. Specific financial terms were not disclosed.
Schering-Plough Corporation (NYSE: SGP) announced that the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) has validated (accepted for review) the company's Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for SYCREST(R) (asenapine) sublingual tablets for the treatment of schizophrenia and manic episodes associated with bipolar I disorder. The application will follow the Centralized Procedure.
Bayer HealthCare and Genzyme Corporation have received regulatory approvals for the strategic alliance announced on March 31, 2009. With these approvals, the legal closing of the transaction was completed on May 29, 2009. Under the terms of the agreement, Bayer licenses its hematological oncology products to Genzyme and transfers its current commercial portfolio of these products to Genzyme. AstraZeneca and Merck & Co., Inc. will collaboration to research a novel combination anticancer regimen composed of two investigational compounds, MK-2206 from Merck and AZD6244 (ARRY-886*) from AstraZeneca. Preclinical evidence indicates that combined administration of these compounds could enhance their anticancer properties.
Following its May 26-29th meeting, the CHMP issued a press release informing, amongst others, that positive opinions have been adopted for clopidogrel applications filed through the EMEA centralized procedure. Some of these applications concern formulations of clopidogrel with a different salt (besilate) when compared to Plavix® (clopidogrel hydrogen sulphate).