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Watson Pharma Defends Ascent Buyout; Bigger Scale Will Offset Price Cuts In Australia / MUMBAI – India’s Strides Arcolab Ltd. announced last week it sold Ascent Pharmahealth Ltd. – its Australia and Southeast Asia focused generic drug businesses – to Watson Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $393 million, nearly four times its 2011 sales of $105 million or 12 times the pre-tax profit. On the face of it, the deal appears beneficial for both organizations. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:01 PM GMT

GAVI Alliance Builds On Matching Fund On Heels Of Pfizer And GSK Vaccine Deal For Developing Countries / GAVI brings on new funding partners for immunization, supplementing expanded pneumococcal vaccine supply agreements with Pfizer and GSK. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:00 PM GMT

Mutual Reliance Blossoming Among U.S. FDA, EMA, Other Inspectorates / U.S. FDA, EMA and other agencies are increasingly relying on each others' inspection results in an effort to spread their inspectional resources throughout the furthest corners of the globe. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 5:30 PM GMT

China Unveils Latest Five-Year Plans For Biopharma And Medical Device Industries (Part 2 of 2) / China’s ambitious five-year plans will support policies to increase domestic R&D and import substitution for China’s biopharma and medical device industries. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:24 PM GMT

Korea Takes Steps To Consolidate Domestic Pharma Industry And Reward Innovation / Korea’s Ministry of Health and Welfare announced goals to reshape its pharma industry as it aims to be among the top seven pharma-strong countries by 2020. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:20 PM GMT

Consent Decree On Ranbaxy Expands U.S. FDA Oversight To India / Ranbaxy set to lose 180-day exclusivity on three products, potentially five more as it begins process to meet new requirements. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 4:17 PM GMT

China Unveils Latest Five-Year Plans For Pharma And Medical Device Industries (Part 1 of 2) / China’s ambitious five-year plans will support policies to increase domestic R&D and import substitution for China’s biopharma and medical device industries. / PharmAsia News Jan. 25, 2012 7:30 PM GMT

Indonesia Drug Maker To Produce Locally Developed H5N1 Flu Vaccine / Indonesia’s state drug maker PT Bio Farma plans to produce an H5N1 influenza vaccine developed by the University of Indonesia, just as the bird flu reaches endemic levels. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:20 PM GMT

Pakistan’s Deadly Drug Focus On Six Drug Makers, Three Raided / Pakistan’s Federal Investigation Agency has turned its focus to six pharmaceutical companies that received contracts to supply allegedly substandard drugs believed to be the cause of death of more than 100 heart patients at a Lahore hospital. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:18 PM GMT

German Merck’s Thai Chief Urges More Government R&D Investment / The head of Merck Thailand, a unit of Germany’s Merck KgaA, called on the Thai government to train more scientists for pharmaceutical research and development if it wants to see local growth in drug manufacturing. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:15 PM GMT

Singapore Drug Sales Double Expectations, Driving Year-End Economy / Singapore ascribes its surprisingly strong increase in industrial production last year to the nation’s pharmaceutical industry. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:13 PM GMT

JCR of Japan, UK’s GSK To Expand Generic Alliance To Innovative Drugs / Japan’s JCR Pharmaceuticals and U.K.-based GlaxoSmithKline plan to expand their partnership for generic drugs to cooperating on innovative products. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:11 PM GMT

Merck India Looks To Increasingly Smaller Towns For OTC Sales Growth / Merck KgaA plans to increase India sales of its OTC products by focusing increasingly on smaller and smaller cities, the German firm’s India unit’s managing director said in an interview. / PharmAsia News Jan. 27, 2012 6:08 PM GMT

Heads Of Israel’s Perrigo Called To Testify At Hearing On Thyroid Drug / Executives of Israel’s Perrigo have been summoned to a hearing by the Health Ministry in an investigation into side-effects of the firm’s Eltroxin (levothyroxine) to threat thyroids. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:39 PM GMT

Takeda Fails In Effort To Get U.K. Coverage For Pulmonary-Disease Drug / Takeda Pharmaceutical failed to win the U.K.’s National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence support for Daxas (roflumilast) for severe COPD. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:36 PM GMT

Aussie Doctors Call For End To University Alternative-Medicine Degrees / More than 400 Australian medical professionals have formed a group to pressure the nation’s universities to stop offering degrees for alternative medicine. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:32 PM GMT

Japan Researchers Report Success With iPS Cells To Treat Parkinson’s / A Japanese research team said it has achieved some success with using induced pluripotent stem cells to treat the effects of Parkinson’s disease. / PharmAsia News Jan. 26, 2012 6:29 PM GMT