Patient safety is our first priority. We strongly refute any allegation that our actions have put patients at risk. We have carried out an extensive research programme, involving more than 50,000 patients to analyse the safety and benefits of Avandia.

Novartis announced that scientists at the Novartis Institute for Tropical Diseases (NITD), in collaboration with researchers from the Genomics Institute of the Novartis Research Foundation (GNF), the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and The Scripps Research Institute have discovered a novel compound that shows promise as a next generation treatment for drug resistant malaria.

GSK initially became aware of possible cases of narcolepsy following vaccination with the adjuvanted H1N1 pandemic vaccine Pandemrix through adverse event reports received by the Swedish Medical Products Agency, and subsequently via media reports in Finland.

Merck KGaA announced today that the Australian Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has approved Cladribine Tablets for the treatment of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (MS). Cladribine Tablets will be registered in Australia under the trade name Movectro®.

AstraZeneca announced that the European Commission (EC) has issued a positive decision for the approval of once-daily SEROQUEL XR (quetiapine fumarate) Extended Release Tablets as an add-on treatment of major depressive episodes in patients with Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) who have had sub-optimal response to antidepressant monotherapy.

Pfizer Inc. (NYSE: PFE) and FoldRx Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a privately held drug discovery and clinical development company, have entered into an agreement under which Pfizer will acquire FoldRx. FoldRx's portfolio includes clinical and pre-clinical programs for investigational compounds to treat diseases caused by protein misfolding, which is increasingly recognized as an underlying cause in many chronic degenerative diseases.

Stefan Brinkmann, Managing Director of Nycomed GmbH, kicked off the German market launch of Daxas® (Roflumilast) in Oranienburg today, making Germany the first country to market the medicine. Daxas® is a proprietary selective phosphodiesterase 4 (PDE4) enzyme inhibitor that was developed by Nycomed to treat the progressive, life-threatening lung disease COPD.