Pfizer chief open to acquisitions

piggy submitted, created time 1 day 15 hours (www.reuters.com)

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest pharmaceutical group, is open to acquisitions, its chief executive Jeff Kindler told the Financial Times in an interview.
"The real goal is to grow revenues ... We are open to opportunities and constantly looking at those which are big, small and in-between," Kindler told the paper.

Sales of Lipitor, Pfizer's $12 billion-a-year cholesterol fighter, are set to fall in 2011 when generic versions are slated to hit the market

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Research organisations join forces to develop treatments for neglected diseases

sea-maid submitted, created time 6 months 2 weeks (www.bmj.com)

Two research organisations based in Paris, the Institute of Research for Development and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative, have announced that they will work together to develop new candidate drugs to treat visceral leishmaniasis, Chagas's disease, and sleeping sickness.

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Fake(?) drugs circulate in free trade zones

Darkfrog submitted, created time 1 year 3 weeks (www.nytimes.com)

This is an article about the economic policies that encourage the international trade in "fake drugs." I'm halfway through the thing and it still hasn't said whether "fake" means sugar pills relabeled as antiretroviral AIDS medicine or just bona-fide generic drugs masquerading as brand name. That little tidbit ought to be in the first paragraph.

While patent violation is a crime and the companies that spent years of time and money developing drugs do deserve their fair share of the profits, this would make a big difference in how serious of an issue it is

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