VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) is the mystery bidder for Swedish Orphan Biovitrum AB (SOBIV.ST), the rare disease specialist which disclosed this week that a potential buyer had made a preliminary offer, people with knowledge of the situation said.

Foreign exchange swings cost North American corporates $18.66 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, according to a report by currency risk management consulting firm FiREapps.

The Canadian government will require pharmaceutical companies to post public notices when drugs are not available or face fines, Health Minister Rona Ambrose said on Tuesday.

Pfizer Inc (PFE.N) said it would buy Hospira Inc (HSP.N) for about $15 billion to boost its portfolio of generic injectable drugs and copies of biotech medicines.

International donors pledged $7.5 billion on Tuesday to immunize 300 million children in poor countries against deadly diseases such as diarrhea and pneumonia.

The international charity Medecins Sans Frontieres urged drugmakers GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer on Tuesday to slash the price of their pneumococcal vaccines to $5 per child in poor countries.

U.S. Pfizer is unlikely to come back with a fresh bid for AstraZeneca, the Anglo-Swedish pharmaceuticals group's top executive was quoted as saying by Swedish business daily Dagens Industri on Saturday.

Pfizer (PFE.N) dampened investors' expectations of a renewed bid for AstraZeneca (AZN.L) on Monday by signing a major cancer drug deal with Germany's Merck KGaA (MRCG.DE), reducing the U.S. firm's need for Astra's products.

Recent U.S. tax changes have weakened the case for companies like Pfizer (PFE.N) to shift their tax bases overseas by striking so-called tax inversion deals, according to AstraZeneca's (AZN.L) chief executive.

Drugmakers are looking for some kind of indemnity from governments or multilateral agencies against possible losses or claims arising from the widespread emergency use of new Ebola vaccines in Africa.

AstraZeneca's cancer drug pipeline, already on a roll following promising clinical trial results, could get a further boost next week from a European green light for an experimental medicine against ovarian cancer.

Hundreds of companies around the world are chasing an emerging market for cheaper copies of costly biotech drugs, with more than 700 so-called biosimilars now in development or already approved, according to a major study of the sector.

Shares in drugmakers AstraZeneca (AZN.L) and Shire (SHP.L) both fell more than 5 percent on Tuesday after the U.S. Treasury took steps to curb "inversion" deals that allow companies to escape high U.S. taxes by reincorporating abroad.

U.S. fund managers are finding a lot to like about finger-painting and naptime. Fund ownership of Bright Horizons Family Solutions Inc, the only publicly traded daycare company in the United States, swelled 21 percent in the most recently reported quarter according to fund tracker Morningstar.

Though speculation is rife of a new Pfizer bid, AstraZeneca's chief executive is not holed up with advisers in London or New York. Instead, he has spent the last three days immersed in heart science in Barcelona.