In parallel with the American College of Cardiology (ACC) Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, initial results have been released from a physician educational programme being undertaken to rectify misunderstandings on stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) in China. The programme offered by the ACC and the Chinese Society of Cardiology with the support of Boehringer Ingelheim, is part of wider international educational activities.

Bayer HealthCare has signed a master collaboration agreement with the California-based Children's Hospital & Research Center Oakland to research hemoglobin disorders, particularly in the area of sickle cell anemia. The agreement aims to utilize promising research approaches to help identify potential new therapies for the rare blood disease.

Pfizer Inc. announced that the United States Patent & Trademark Office has granted Pfizer a reissue patent (U.S. Patent No. RE44048), covering methods of treating osteoarthritis and other approved conditions with celecoxib, the active ingredient in Celebrex®.

AstraZeneca today announced that the Federal Court of Australia has found three patents protecting CRESTOR (rosuvastatin) to be invalid. These patents - a formulation patent (AU 200051842, with an expiry date in 2020); a second related to the use of rosuvastatin for treating heterozygous familial hypercholesterolemia (AU 2002214165, with an expiry date in 2021); and a third related to the use of rosuvastatin for treating hypercholesterolemia (AU 2000023051, with an expiry date in 2020) - were challenged by Apotex Pty Ltd, Watson Pharma Pty Ltd and Ascent Pharma Pty Ltd.

2012 was a very successful year for the Bayer Group. "We continued to grow dynamically and achieved our targets for the Group. All the subgroups posted gains in sales and earnings before special items," said Bayer CEO Dr. Marijn Dekkers at the Financial News Conference in Leverkusen on Thursday.

Novartis today announced that it has launched an effort to eliminate rheumatic heart disease in Zambia in collaboration with the Lusaka University Teaching Hospital (UTH), the Ministry of Health in Zambia, the Pan-African Cardiology Society and Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH).

Roche is expanding access to its clinical trial data for third party researchers. Roche will work with an independent body of recognised experts to evaluate and approve requests to access anonymised patient-level data. Roche will support the release of full clinical study reports (CSRs) for all its licensed medicines via regulatory authorities and make available any CSRs that cannot be provided by these authorities upon a researcher’s request.