Business & Industry News Channel
"From an operational standpoint, 2008 was the most successful year in Bayer's long history," said Management Board Chairman Werner Wenning on Tuesday at the Spring Financial News Conference in Leverkusen. He explained that Bayer is benefiting from its alignment toward the life-science businesses HealthCare and CropScience, which are less dependent on global economic development. 
Pfizer Inc (NYSE: PFE) announced today that it has entered into a series of agreements with Aurobindo Pharma Ltd., a pharmaceutical company based in India, to commercialize medicines that are no longer patent protected, and have lost market exclusivity in the United States and Europe, further progressing its Established Products Business Unit strategy.
Sanofi Pasteur, the vaccines division of sanofi-aventis Group (EURONEXT : SAN and NYSE : SNY), announced that the European Commission has granted marketing authorization for the first intradermal (ID) microinjection influenza vaccine. The advantages of this vaccine, in particular the convenience and the ease of administration, should help improve the coverage rate in Europe. 
Genzyme Corporation (Nasdaq: GENZ) announced that the European Commission has approved the production of Myozyme® (alglucosidase alfa) at the 4000 liter (L) bioreactor scale at its manufacturing facility in Geel, Belgium. The product will be made commercially available immediately. Myozyme is the only approved treatment for Pompe disease, a progressively debilitating and often fatal inherited disorder.
Bayer HealthCare and the Association of German Medical Journalists (VDMJ) have jointly announced the 2009 Advances in Renal Cancer Journalists’ Award Europe, which will honor journalists who have dealt with the issue of renal cancer in a critical and objective manner. The award, endowed with EUR 7,500, is donated by Bayer HealthCare. Eligible for the award are printed media, radio, television and film reports.
Abbott today announced the successful completion of the tender offer by its wholly owned subsidiary Rainforest Acquisition Inc. to purchase all of the outstanding shares of common stock of Advanced Medical Optics (AMO). The tender offer expired at midnight Eastern time on Tuesday, Feb. 24, 2009, and was not extended. 
For Nycomed the twelve months of 2008 have been satisfactory and most of the markets performed well and met expectations. Key products developed strongly, with the exception of Pantoprazole sales in the United States and Canada, which is due to "at-risk" launch and generic competition, respectively. The company's integration restructuring showed its full cost-savings effect in 2008.