Author: PharmaTimes

AstraZeneca’s remuneration committee is considering increasing chief executive, Sir Tom McKillop’s pay by as much as 50%, providing the company meets demanding new targets.

The new single inhaler version of AstraZeneca’s asthma, Symbicort (budesonide and formoterol), reduces the number of severe asthma attacks and improves overall asthma control, according to the results of the so-called STAY study.

UK patients will now be able to alert regulators to the side effects they experience as a result of taking prescription medicines under a series of amendments to the country’s drug side effect reporting scheme, which come as part of a renewed bid to improve drug safety.

Shire Pharmaceuticals says that it has out-licensed its HIV compound, SPD754, to Australian company, Avexa – one of the final steps in the UK firm’s divestment programme, aimed at concentrating its efforts on what it terms its core therapeutic areas of central nervous system, gastrointestinal and renal diseases [[01/08/03b]].

Shares in Germany’s Altana sneaked up yesterday on the news that the firm has begun selling its asthma treatment, Alvesco (ciclesonide), in the UK – the reference member state for pan-European approval. It was also good news from home, as the company announced that it has received the national marketing licence to sell the novel inhaled corticosteroid in Germany, starting next month, with further launches to follow in Europe and worldwide.