Alliance Boots on Friday announced that it has distributed its equity interest in Galenica, its Swiss associate, to the group’s ultimate parent company, AB Acquisitions Holdings, in accordance with the terms of the agreement with Walgreens reached last year.

Swiss drug maker Covis Pharma will buy U.S. rights to five drugs from Sanofi, Covis said.

Swiss skin drug maker Galderma Pharma will acquire another Swiss drug maker also focused on treatments for skin conditions, Galderma said.

Nestlé on Tuesday named Luis Cantarell head of Nestlé Nutrition with the departure of Kurt Schmidt, deputy EVP Nestlé Nutrition, who has decided to leave the company for personal reasons effective Dec. 1.

A Swiss subsidiary of drug maker Celgene Corp. said its chemotherapy drug produced "significant" improvement in progression-free survival in patients with a deadly skin cancer that had spread elsewhere in the body.

While headlines in the past two weeks warned consumers that calcium supplementation could increase the risk of cardiovascular disease, authors of the study that prompted those headlines — published last month in the peer-reviewed journal Heart — identified four significant confounding factors in the design of the study.

Novartis' generics division has acquired Fougera Pharmaceuticals, the company said Wednesday.

Roche has decided not to buy diagnostics firm Illumina, the drug maker said Wednesday.

The Food and Drug Administration approved an effervescent tablet for treating osteoporosis.

The Food and Drug Administration has accepted a new drug application for a skin cancer treatment developed by Roche.

Roche has received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its new generation of blood-glucose test strips.

An investigational treatment made by Roche for asthma increased lung function in patients who could not adequately control their disease with inhaled corticosteroids, according to results of a mid-stage clinical trial.