Health Care

Teva Said to Beat Pfizer, Actavis in $4.8 Billion Ratiopharm Acquisition Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. is close to an agreement to buy Ratiopharm GmbH for about 3.5 billion euros ($4.78 billion), ending a nine-month battle for Germany’s second-biggest maker of generic medicines, two people familiar with knowledge of the sale said.

J&J's Alzheimer Drug Test Results May Be Pushed Back 2 Years Until 2012 One of the most eagerly anticipated studies of a drug for Alzheimer’s disease may not yield results until 2012, two years later than had been forecast.

Roche Plans to Strengthen Oncology, Introduce at Least Six Drugs by 2015 Roche Holding AG plans to strengthen its position in oncology and expand in therapeutic areas such as metabolism and inflammation, introducing at least six new medicines by 2015.

Sigma Pharma in Talks to Revise Loan Terms, May Scrap Second-Half Dividend Sigma Pharmaceuticals Ltd., Australia’s biggest drug distributor by market share, is renegotiating the terms of bank debt and said it will probably scrap a second-half dividend as competition in the generic- medicines market crimps cash flow.

Hikma Chief Spurns Buyout Offers While Seeking Own Acquisitions for Growth Hikma Pharmaceuticals Plc has fended off seven takeover approaches in the past three years, and Chief Executive Officer Said Darwazah says he won’t consider selling the Jordanian drugmaker until it reaches a market value of 5 billion pounds ($7.7 billion).

Pelosi Idea for Limited Health-Care Vote Raises Constitutional Questions House Speaker Nancy Pelosi may be creating new grounds for a court challenge to the proposed U.S. health-care overhaul as she considers using a mechanism that would avoid a vote on the full legislation.

Wells Fargo Unit Wachovia Settles U.S. Laundering Probe for $160 Million Wells Fargo & Co.’s Wachovia Bank agreed to pay $160 million to resolve a criminal investigation of how drug cartels used the bank to launder money through Mexican exchange houses.

Abraxis Shares Surge After Successful Trial of Abraxane Cancer Treatment Abraxis BioScience Inc., developer of a modified form of the common chemotherapy drug paclitaxel, gained the most in 28 months in New York trading after reporting that its product met the goals in a study of lung-cancer patients.