Business & Industry News Channel
The European Commission has granted Novartis a new indication for Lucentis® (ranibizumab) to treat patients with visual impairment due to macular edema secondary to retinal vein occlusion (branch RVO and central RVO), a sudden-onset disease where patients have difficulties with daily activities such as reading, cooking and driving. 
Bristol-Myers Squibb Company (NYSE:BMY) announced today it has entered in to a clinical collaboration agreement with Roche (SIX:RO; OTCQX:RHHBY) to evaluate the utility of Bristol-Myers Squibb's CTLA-4 inhibitor, YERVOY (ipilimumab), in combination with Roche's investigational oral BRAF inhibitor, vemurafenib, in treating patients with a specific type of metastatic melanoma. 
Pfizer Inc. announced today that the European Medicines Agency (EMA) has accepted Pfizer's filing for regulatory review of axitinib for patients with advanced renal cell carcinoma (RCC) after failure of prior systemic treatment. This submission was based on Phase 3 data from the AXIS 1032 trial. Pfizer will present full results from this trial, as well as additional data on axitinib, at the 47th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO), being held in Chicago from June 3-7, 2011. 
AstraZeneca and Heptares Therapeutics have entered a four-year collaboration focused on the potential discovery and development of new medicines targeting G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs). GPCRs are among the largest and most important family of proteins found in the human body, yet they become highly unstable when removed from their natural membrane-bound environments. 
A pre-planned subgroup analysis of the ROCKET AF Phase III clinical study confirms that rivaroxaban is highly effective in the prevention of recurrent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who have experienced a prior stroke or transient ischemic attack (TIA). These findings were presented at the 20th European Stroke Conference by Professor Werner Hacke, Chair of the Department of Neurology at the University of Heidelberg, Germany, and member of the ROCKET AF Executive Steering Committee. 
Nycomed announced results for the first quarter of 2011, demonstrating continued outperformance in the key emerging economies which are driving growth in the global pharmaceuticals industry. There was good growth in Nycomed's Key Products portfolio (excluding Pantoprazole, which is now off patent worldwide), led by respiratory, OTC and Regional and Local Rx products. Novartis welcomes the decision to endorse the Pandemic Influenza Preparedness Framework (PIP Framework) at the Sixty-fourth World Health Assembly. The PIP Framework sets out the roles and commitments of different stakeholders, including the World Health Organization (WHO) and vaccine manufacturers, in pandemic preparedness.