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.

The Phase III EINSTEIN-DVT clinical trial of the oral anticoagulant rivaroxaban demonstrated non-inferiority compared to the standard of care for the prevention of recurrent venous thromboembolism (VTE) in patients with acute symptomatic deep vein thrombosis (DVT), with a comparable safety profile.

Shire plc (LSE: SHP, NASDAQ: SHPGY), the global specialty biopharmaceutical company, announced its support for inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) fellowships at leading medical institutions across the country.

Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) today confirmed that it has received an unsolicited, non-binding proposal from Sanofi-Aventis to acquire all the outstanding shares of Genzyme for $69 per share in cash. The Genzyme board of directors met last night, unanimously affirmed its previous rejection of Sanofi's proposal, and instructed the company to send Sanofi the following response letter:

Sanofi-aventis (EURONEXT: SAN and NYSE: SNY) announced that it has submitted a non-binding proposal to acquire Genzyme (NASDAQ: GENZ) in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $18.5 billion.