NAPSRx

After the markets closed Friday, Amgen and AstraZeneca announced that their top psoriasis contender, brodalumab, scored a win in Phase III, with a large majority of patients in both dosage arms clearing the bar on a standard measure for efficacy.

Sales of the Bayer Group advanced by 2.8% in the first quarter of 2014 to $15 million and business expanded by 8.4%. EBIT rose by 18.4% to $3 million after net special items of plus $9.7 million.

In the latest deal in the pharmaceutical space, Germany-based Bayer is acquiring Merck's consumer care business, which includes well-known brands like Claritin, Afrin and Coppertone, for $14.2 billion.

The roll-out of Novo Nordisk's ultra-long-acting insulin Tresiba is off to an encouraging start, picking up sales of around $15 million USD in the first quarter of the year.

Novartis has won early FDA approval for their new drug; Zykadia.

Actavis plc’s first quarter 2014 earnings came in at $3.49 per share, well above the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $3.29 per share and 75.4% above the year-ago earnings.

Novartis announced that it had reached definitive agreements with GlaxoSmithKline plc (GSK) and Eli Lilly and Company (Lilly) on a set of transactions.

U.S. drugmaker AbbVie Inc reported better-than-expected quarterly sales and earnings, fueled by a sizzling performance from its Humira treatment for rheumatoid arthritis, the world's top-selling prescription medicine.

Ritalin, a drug used to treat attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, may help people maintain self-control so they can stick to a diet or a boring project, a new study suggests.

A team of researchers from Columbia University Medical Center (CUMC), Weill Cornell Medical College, and Brandeis University has devised a wholly new approach to the treatment of Alzheimer's disease involving the so-called retromer protein complex.