Novo Nordisk announced today that it has entered into a consent agreement with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and a deferred prosecution agreement with the US Department of Justice (DOJ) resolving their investigations of the company's sales to Iraq during 2000 to 2003 under the UN's Oil-for-Food programme.

Nycomed has announced the submission of a Marketing Authorisation Application (MAA) to the European Medicines Agency (EMEA) for Daxas® as a once-daily oral treatment for patients with COPD associated with chronic bronchitis. The MAA submission is based on encouraging results from four Phase III trials of Daxas (roflumilast) in the treatment of symptomatic COPD.

GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) has entered into an agreement to divest full commercial rights to Wellbutrin XL® in the United States to Biovail International Laboratories SRL, a subsidiary of Biovail Corporation (NYSE, TSX: BVF), for $510 million (£340 million). The agreement is subject to Hart-Scott-Rodino regulatory clearance in the United States.

Bayer Schering Pharma AG, Germany is starting Phase III with an innovative patch for female contraception that combines low dosed ethinylestradiol and gestodene. Approximately 3300 women will be enrolled into two global studies to evaluate the contraceptive reliability of the patch starting in May 2009.

Pfizer, Inc (NYSE: PFE), the world's premier biopharmaceutical company, and the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), the private, non-profit patenting and licensing organization for the University of Wisconsin-Madison, have signed a license for human embryonic stem (hES) cell patents for the development of new drug therapies.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) is committed to supporting governments and health authorities around the world to respond to the emergence of the new influenza A (H1N1) strain. The company has developed a number of potential interventions which it believes may be of value in efforts to reduce the impact and spread of this new influenza virus.

Results from an international, placebo-controlled trial,(1) presented for the first time at the American Academy of Neurology (AAN) Annual Meeting in Seattle, U.S.A. demonstrate that Mirapexin® / Sifrol® (pramipexole) also improves depressive symptoms, a common, disabling non-motor symptom of Parkinson's disease (PD), in addition to its established efficacy in treating the motor symptoms of PD.