Pharmaceutical giants Novartis and GlaxoSmithKline have agreed to exchange assets and combine their consumer healthcare units.
Novartis will acquire GSK’s oncology drugs business for $16 billion and sell its vaccines division, excluding the flu unit, to GSK for $7.1 billion.
In a separate deal, Novartis has agreed to sell its animal health division to Lilly for nearly $5.4 billion.
Novartis said the moves would help the company focus on its key businesses.
Novartis will acquire GSK’s oncology drugs business for $16 billion and sell its vaccines division, excluding the flu unit, to GSK for $7.1 billion
“The transactions mark a transformational moment for Novartis,” Novartis CEO Joseph Jimenez said in a statement.
“They also improve our financial strength, and are expected to add to our growth rates and margins immediately.”
The deals are a part of Novartis’s review of its business as it continues to face sluggish growth.
Novartis and GSK said that combining their over-the-counter (OTC) units would help boost the fortunes of both the companies.
The combined unit will have annual revenues of more than $10 billion.
“Opportunities to build greater scale and combine high quality assets in vaccines and consumer healthcare are scarce,” GSK CEO Andrew Witty said in a statement.
“With this transaction, we will substantially strengthen two of our core businesses and create significant new options to increase value for shareholders.”
Glaxo shareholders will get a $6.5 billion capital return from the deal proceeds, the company said.
Good Morning America‘s correspondent Amy Robach has revealed she will have a double mastectomy this week, a month after undergoing a mammogram on the show.
Amy Robach, 40, discovered she had breast cancer after reluctantly agreeing to have a screening filmed for the ABC show.
She said GMA anchor Robin Roberts had persuaded her that if the story saved one life, it would be worth it.
“It never occurred to me that life would be mine,” said Amy Robach.
Producers chose Amy Robach to cover the mammogram story because it is recommended that women at the age of 40 regularly check for breast cancer.
During Monday’s programme, and in a blog post following the show, Amy Robach said doctors had not yet determined what stage the cancer had progressed to, or whether it had spread.
The original story, which was part of the GMA Goes Pink breast cancer awareness day, featured Amy Robach emerging from her on-air mammogram, before telling colleagues that it hurt much less than she thought it would.
Amy Robach has revealed she will have a double mastectomy this week, a month after undergoing a mammogram on the show
A few weeks later she was told she had cancer, after returning for what she thought would be some follow-up images.
Amy Robach said that her husband, actor Andrew Shue, had returned from his work trip that night and her parents had also caught a flight to New York to join her.
“We started gearing up for a fight,” she said, as she revealed that she would have both breasts removed this Thursday, followed by reconstructive surgery.
Amy Robach joined ABC in 2012 from NBC, where she was a Weekend Today host.
She frequently filled in as a presenter on ABC’s top-rated morning show GMA, while host Robin Roberts was fighting a serious blood and bone marrow disease.
Amy Robach said that with a full-time job and two children she had always found reasons to put off having a mammogram herself.
However, a doctor told her that the test had saved her life.
“I can only hope my story will inspire every woman who hears it to get a mammogram, to take a self-exam,” said Amy Robach.
“No excuses. It is the difference between life and death.”
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A new prostate cancer test can predict how aggressive a tumor is and could spare men unnecessary operations, researchers suggest.
Early data, presented at the National Cancer Research Institute conference, suggests a genetic test can tell apart aggressive and slow-growing tumors.
A big challenge in treating the cancer is knowing whether surgery to remove the gland is needed.
Cancer charities said a successful test would be a “game-changer”.
A new prostate cancer test can predict how aggressive a tumor is and could spare men unnecessary operations
The decision to remove the prostate is based on an examination of a tumor sample under the microscope.
However, the procedure has significant side-effects such as infertility, difficulty maintaining and keeping an erection and uncontrolled urinating.
The commercial test, developed by Myriad Genetics, but independently assessed by Queen Mary University of London, looks at the activity level of genes inside a sample of the tumor.
If 31 genes involved in controlling how cells divide are highly active, it indicates the cancer is aggressive.
A new study has suggested that post-menopausal women who walk for an hour a day can cut their chance of breast cancer significantly.
The report, which followed more than 73,000 women for 17 years, found walking for at least seven hours a week lowered the risk of the disease.
The American Cancer Society team said this was the first time reduced risk was specifically linked to walking.
This study, published in Cancer Epidemiology, Biomarkers & Prevention followed 73,615 women out of 97,785 aged 50-74 who had been recruited by the American Cancer Society between 1992 and 1993 so it could monitor the incidence of cancer in the group.
They were asked to complete questionnaires on their health and on how much time they were active and participating in activities such as walking, swimming and aerobics and how much time they spent sitting watching television or reading.
Post-menopausal women who walk for an hour a day can cut their chance of breast cancer significantly
They completed the same questionnaires at two-year intervals between 1997 and 2009.
Of the women, 47% said walking was their only recreational activity.
Those who walked for at least seven hours per week had a 14% lower risk of breast cancer compared to those who walked three or fewer hours per week.
Dr. Alpa Patel, a senior epidemiologist at the American Cancer Society in Atlanta Georgia, who led the study, said: “Given that more than 60% of women report some daily walking, promoting walking as a healthy leisure-time activity could be an effective strategy for increasing physical activity amongst post-menopausal women.
“We were pleased to find that without any other recreational activity, just walking one hour a day was associated with a lower risk of breast cancer in these women.
“More strenuous and longer activities lowered the risk even more.”
