News

Three core products continued to drive growth at UCB SA during the first half of 2011 setting the Belgian company on course for revenue of about €3.1 billion for the year as a whole.

Merck & Co has announced a second round of staff reductions which could  eliminate as many as 13,000 jobs on top of the 17,000 jobs already scheduled for elimination. The plans were disclosed in the company’s Q2 results on 29 July.

SkyePharma Plc has initialed a licensing agreement with Sanofi SA under which the French multinational will pursue marketing authorisation applications for the asthma drug, Flutiform, in Mexico, and Central and South America.

MorphoSys AG faced a squeeze between declining revenue and rising costs in the second quarter of 2011 but management said the antibody company would meet its targets for the year including an operating profit of €10 to 13 million.

Sanofi SA produced mixed results for the second quarter and first half of 2011. Second quarter sales rose 0.5% to €8.3 billion from a year earlier as a €796 million contribution from consolidating Genzyme Corporation’s sales was largely offset by a decline of €778 million due to generic competition.

AstraZeneca Plc has again raised its target for earnings per share in 2011 and set a higher goal for share repurchases even as generic competition and government austerity measures depressed revenue in the second quarter.

Elan Corporation Plc has started to reap the benefits of a multi-year reorganisation which has transformed it from a diversified, but indebted enterprise into a leaner company specializing in neurology.

Addex Pharmaceuticals Ltd has taken back rights to a preclinical asset that had been licensed to Merck & Co for schizophrenia. At the same time, it is progressing a second partnership with Merck for a candidate drug for Parkinson’s disease.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc has confirmed its goal of delivering a 14% return on its investment in research and development and for the first time, has provided a breakdown of spending on these activities in the first half of 2011.

GlaxoSmithKline Plc is raising its quarterly dividend by 7% and forecasting an improvement in its profit margin in 2012 following a multi-year restructuring programme and a rebalancing of its sales profile.