LONDON (AP) — Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is forming a joint venture with a unit of Google’s parent that will invest 540 million pounds ($714 million) in the relatively new field of bioelectronic medicine.
(Reuters) – Beleaguered Canadian drugmaker Valeant Pharmaceuticals International Inc said it received a notice of default from bondholders for the delay in filing its first-quarter report. Last week, Valeant had said it expected to file the report with U.S. and Canadian regulators on or before June 10, ahead of a July 31 deadline. Valeant had been one of the pharmaceutical industry's most widely owned stocks as its steady stream of acquisitions fueled strong gains in its shares.
(Reuters) – The U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved Danish drugmaker H. Lundbeck A/S and Japan’s Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co Ltd’s Rexulti, an anti-psychotic drug used to treat schizophrenia. The drug, brexpiprazole, was also approved as an adjunctive therapy for major depressive disorder (MDD), a serious psychiatric condition that can lead to persistent feelings of sadness, frustration or anger, the health regulator said on Friday. Otsuka Pharmaceutical is a unit of Otsuka Holdings Co Ltd. The agency based its decision on seven clinical trials, three of which examined the drug’s effect on schizophrenia and four testing it as an adjunctive therapy for MDD.
Teva Pharmaceutical Tuesday launched an unsolicited bid to buy Mylan for $31 billion in a transaction that would create a behemoth in generic drugs. Teva's cash-and-stock bid would quash an unsolicited bid by Mylan earlier this month to acquire Perrigo for $28.9 billion. Teva said its bid amounted to superior value for Mylan shareholders compared with Mylan's approach to Perrigo.
ZURICH (Reuters) – Swiss drugmaker Roche expects sales and profits to grow at a similar pace to last year, after a strong performance by its diagnostics unit and flu drug Tamiflu helped full-year sales beat expectations. Stripping out the impact of currency fluctuations, the world's largest maker of cancer drugs forecast 2015 sales to grow in the low-to-mid single digit range, while core earnings per share (EPS) should grow more than sales. Full-year sales rose 1 percent to 47.5 billion Swiss francs ($52.5 billion), generating flat core earnings per share (EPS) of 14.29 Swiss francs. …