VENTURE CAPITAL POST

Drug makers Sanofi and Merck & Co. will part ways by the end of the year sealing their partnership for the European vaccines joint venture. Sales has been declining and both companies agreed it is better if they were better off running their own businesses.

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

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.

Generic drugmaker Actavis Plc and France's Sanofi SA are among the suitors for privately held Omega Pharma NV [COUCKO.UL], Bloomberg reported, citing people familiar with the matter.

French drugmaker Sanofi announced on Wednesday a partnership with U.S.-based MyoKardia to develop therapies for patients with genetic heart diseases.

International Business Machines Corp on Wednesday launched a computer system that can quickly identify patterns in massive amounts of data, an ability that IBM said should hasten breakthroughs in science and medical research.

Sanofi is looking to grasp a good hold in Africa through acquisition of business units, according to the firm's CEO Chris Viehbacher who told Reuters.

Sanofi will be purchasing a 12% stake in Alnylam Pharmaceuticals as well as access to the drugs it has developed for rare diseases, Bloomberg reported.

London-listed drugmaker Shire announced its intention to buy U.S. pharmaceutical company for USD4.2 billion.

Merck & Co. decided to cut its annual spending by USD2.5 billion and eliminate more than 10% of its global workers.

ViroPharma had attracted interested suitors including Sanofi and Shire Plc. as it started working with Goldman Sachs Group for a possible sale.

French cosmetic firm L'Oreal said it could afford to buy back the EUR 23 billion stake that Nestle holds in the firm.

Xinhua reported that French drugmaker Sanofi had become the focus of bribery investigations by Chinese authorities.

Sanofi, Novartis and GSK are in a race to buy Elder Pharma's formulations unit.