Content about Switzerland

BERN, Switzerland — Alliance Boots on Friday announced that it has distributed its equity interest in Galenica, its Swiss associate, to the group’s ultimate parent company, AB Acquisitions Holdings, in accordance with the terms of the agreement with Walgreens reached last year.

Galenica continues as an associate of AB Acquisitions Holdings. Stefano Pessina, executive chairman of Alliance Boots, continues as non-executive director of Galenica while Etienne Jornod, executive chairman of Galenica, stays as a non-executive director of Alliance Boots.

ZUG, Switzerland — Swiss drug maker Covis Pharma will buy U.S. rights to five drugs from Sanofi, Covis said Thursday.

LAUSANNE, Switzerland — Swiss skin drug maker Galderma Pharma will acquire another Swiss drug maker also focused on treatments for skin conditions, Galderma said.

Based in Egerkingen, Switzerland, Spirig makes treatments for such conditions as solar damage and skin barrier function impairment, as well as treatments for such precancerous conditions as actinic keratosis. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, though it was noted that Spirig had sales of about $106 million in 2011. The global corporate headquarters of Galderma will remain in Lausanne, Switzerland.

VEVEY, Switzerland — Nestlé on Tuesday named Luis Cantarell head of Nestlé Nutrition with the departure of Kurt Schmidt, deputy EVP Nestlé Nutrition, who has decided to leave the company for personal reasons effective Dec. 1. 

Cantarell will assume this role in addition to his current responsibilities as president and CEO of Nestlé Health Science. Between 2001 and 2005, he was in charge of Nestlé’s Nutrition Strategic Business Division.

BOUDRY, Switzerland — A Swiss subsidiary of drug maker Celgene Corp. said its chemotherapy drug produced "significant" improvement in progression-free survival in patients with a deadly skin cancer that had spread elsewhere in the body.

ZURICH, Switzerland — While headlines in the past two weeks warned consumers that calcium supplementation could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, authors of the study that prompted those headlines — published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Heart — identified four significant confounding factors in the design of the study.

For example, the dietary data contained measurement errors and could not adequately account for long-term variation in calcium intake due to changes in diet.

BASEL, Switzerland — Novartis' generics division has acquired Fougera Pharmaceuticals, the company said Wednesday.

Sandoz announced the acquisition of Melville, N.Y.-based Fougera for $1.525 billion in cash. Fougera specializes in generic dermatology drugs, and Sandoz said the acquisition would make it the world's largest company in the space.

BASEL, Switzerland — Roche has decided not to buy diagnostics firm Illumina, the drug maker said Wednesday.

Roche said it had decided not to extend its $51-per-share offer for Illumina following the reelection of Illumina's incumbent directors. Roche offered to buy Illumina for $44.50 per share in January, increasing the offer to $51 on March 29. The company took the offer directly to shareholders earlier this month after Illumina's board rejected it.

FREIENBACH, Switzerland — The Food and Drug Administration approved an effervescent tablet for treating osteoporosis.

EffRx Pharmaceuticals announced the FDA approval of Binosto (alendronate sodium), a strawberry-flavored tablet designed to dissolve in water that the company called the first treatment of its kind. The drug is designed to treat osteoporosis in menopausal women and increase bone mass in men with osteoporosis. EffRx expects to launch Binosto in third quarter 2012.

BASEL, Switzerland — The Food and Drug Administration has accepted a new drug application for a skin cancer treatment developed by Roche.

Roche said that the FDA accepted its NDA for vismodegib, designed to treat advanced basal cell carcinoma in adults for whom surgery is considered inappropriate. The application was granted priorit review status and has a confirmed action date of March 8, 2012.

BASEL, Switzerland — Roche has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its new generation of blood-glucose test strips.

Roche said that its Accu-Chek Aviva Plus test strips are maltose-independent test strips that are designed to prevent the interference of maltose on blood-sugar readings, which can occur in rare cases when drugs containing or metabolizing to maltose are parenterally administered.

The Accu-Chek Aviva Plus test strip is cleared for patient self-monitoring of blood glucose and can be used with the Accu-Chek Aviva system.

BASEL, Switzerland — An investigational treatment made by Roche for asthma increased lung function in patients who could not adequately control their disease with inhaled corticosteroids, according to results of a mid-stage clinical trial.