AstraZeneca today announced a strategic partnership with Peking University 3rd Hospital to open its first Clinical Pharmacology Unit (CPU) in China. The unit aims to enhance local clinical research capabilities and speed up access to new medicines to benefit Chinese patients.

Sandoz has become the first company to develop and receive European Commission approval for its biosimilar epoetin alfa, achieving another important milestone in its efforts to bring high quality, cost-effective biological medicines to patients. The European Commission's decision to grant this approval followed a positive opinion in June from the European Medicines Agency's Committee on Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP), which reviews medicines scientifically for the Commission.

Takeda Pharmaceutical Company Limited ("Takeda") announced that its investigational compound TAK-536 has entered into Phase 2 clinical stage in Japan. TAK-536 is an angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) discovered by Takeda and its mechanism of action is to lower blood pressure by inhibiting action of a vasopressor hormone Angiotensin II.

Patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS) undergoing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), or angioplasty, experienced nearly 50 percent less bleeding at 30 days and comparable mortality at one-year when treated with Angiox(R) (bivalirudin) alone compared to unfractionated heparin or enoxaparin plus a glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor (GPI), according to data from the ACUITY trial.

Meda announced that it had signed an agreement to acquire all shares in MedPointe. This strategic acquisition has now been completed and consolidation of MedPointe starts immediately. Meda plans to give further information on the acquisition and its impact on Meda in the interim report for the third quarter - to be released on 30 October 2007.

The first place in the national competition "Consumer's Laurel 2007" in the category "Drugs for memory improvement" has been won by Krka's Bilobil. As in the last year, also this year Bilobil won the first place in its category.

Journalists Gabriela Navarra from Argentina and Michael Kefalogiannis from Greece won the Novo Nordisk Media Prize 2007 for the best article in lay press and the best TV feature about diabetes, respectively. The awards were presented by the president and CEO of Novo Nordisk, Lars Rebien Sørensen, during a ceremony held on 28 August in Copenhagen.