The ABPI has played down any worries over the state of the UK pharmaceutical industry after AstraZeneca’s restructuring plans put jobs at risk at two plants in Cheshire.

Shareholder group Ethos has said Novartis’ 2011 bonus payment to its chairman, Daniel Vasella, “goes too far”.

The Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) has called for a complete withdrawal of the Government’s controversial Health and Social Care Bill.

Cancer Research UK has urged NICE to consider its decision on Janssen’s Zytiga (abiraterone) for the treatment of castration-resistant metastatic prostate cancer.

Pfizer has withdrawn approximately 1 million packs of birth control pills in the US that may contain dosage errors making their contraceptive effect unreliable. The company’s Chief Medical Officer Freda Lewis-Hall discusses Pfizer’s voluntary product recall.

Pfizer has withdrawn approximately 1 million packs of birth control pills in the US that may contain dosage errors making their contraceptive effect unreliable.

AstraZeneca saw revenue fall by around $3bn in 2011 after it faced global pricing restrictions from governments and generic competition.

AstraZeneca will reduce its workforce by approximately 7,300 positions in new restructuring plans it hopes will strengthen the company’s commercial, operations and R&D capabilities.

The European Medicines Agency (EMA) has approved an orphan medicinal product application for a vaccine against acute myeloid leukaemia (AML) from Dutch biotech company DCPrime.

Medical communications consultancy Succinct Communications is joining the OPEN Health group.