Pfizer may come back to bid for British drug company AstraZeneca after its reported £60bn (€73bn) takeover approach was rejected, since a deal could make sense for the US pharmaceuticals giant as it seeks to build up its cancer franchise.

US pharmaceutical giant Pfizer has reportedly approached British rival AstraZeneca to propose a $100bn (€73bn) takeover.

Global pharmaceutical firm MSD’s announcement that it is to close its Swords plant with the potential loss of 570 jobs comes less than nine months after it confirmed 280 people were to be let go with the closure of its Wicklow facility.

Business technology provider MJ Flood last year returned to profitability to record pre-tax profits of €2.95m.

Nestlé, the world’s biggest food group, is closing in on a deal to buy Pfizer’s infant nutrition business for up to $10bn (€7.6bn) to boost its business in China and extend its lead in the world of formula milk for babies, sources familiar with the matter said yesterday.

DRUGMAKER Pfizer has beaten Wall Street expectations with higher profit and revenue in the third quarter, the last before generic competition starts wiping out sales of Lipitor, the cholesterol blockbuster that has buoyed the company for years.

RESTRUCTURING costs at an Irish subsidiary of pharmaceutical firm Wyeth pushed the company into the red in 2009, new figures show.

A pharmaceutical company and one of its contractors have been fined €40,000 each at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court on charges relating to their waste management practices.

A pharmaceutical company and one of its contractors are to be sentenced at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court in October in relation to waste management practices.

WHEN Pfizer began construction of its first plant in Ringaskiddy in 1969, there was a hope that the facility producing citric acid and gluconate products would be the first of many which would ultimately make Cork and Ireland a global giant in the pharmaceutical trade.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer was one of the success stories of the Celtic Tiger economy, especially with the development of the wonder drug Viagra.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer today announced plans to shut down three of its Irish facilities and reduce operations at a fourth, with the loss of 785 jobs.

PFIZER, best known for producing Viagra, has become the country’s biggest multinational. It follows completion of its $68 billion (€45.5bn) takeover of Wyeth which, also has a substantial presence across Ireland.

Pfizer has completed a $68bn takeover of rival pharmaceuticals giant, Wyeth.

Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer — which employs 2,000 people in Ireland — reported a 2% decline in first-quarter earnings to $2.7 billion, in line with the company’s projections.

MERCK, the drugmaker that has acquired Schering-Plough for $41.1 billion (€32.5bn), said both firms, which employ 2,000 people here, are “fully committed” to Ireland.

PFIZER said it was too early to say what impact its merger with Wyeth would have in Ireland or if there would be any job cuts here.

Around 250 jobs are being lost at Wyeth Medica Ireland in Co Kildare, it was announced this afternoon.

JOB creation in IDA Ireland-backed firms fell by more than 2,600 last year from 11,846 a year earlier to an 11-year-low of 9,216.

PHARMACEUTICAL giants Wyeth will invest more than €24 million in a development centre creating 20 jobs.

Imtech NV, a Dutch technical services provider, is to buy the Irish firm Suir Engineering Ltd.

CHAMBERS IRELAND has announced the shortlist for the fourth annual President’s awards for corporate social responsibility.

EMPLOYERS from across the mid-west will gather for a bigr business meeting in Shannon tomorrow amid concerns that the loss of Aer Lingus’s Heathrow link will cripple the regional economy.

AN expedition to rival any in Irish history ended in Donegal yesterday when six swimmers completed the first ever round-the-coast swim.

CORK-headquartered Zentek Engineering has expanded into the Asia-Pacific market through the opening of a new office in Singapore.

THE recent loss of jobs at Wyeth in Newbridge, Co Kildare, raises a moral question for Catholics working for international pharmaceutical manufacturing companies.

SIPTU officials are due to meet management at Wyeth Medica in Co Kildare today following the US pharmaceutical firm's decision to lay off one-sixth of the plant's workforce.

THE IDA was cleared to give a €48.25 million grant to Johnson & Johnson’s new Cork plant, Centocor, by the European Commission yesterday.

DRUG giant Wyeth has announced a €13 million investment in research and development capability in Ireland.

Ireland’s biotechnology industry is strong and primed for further growth, a government minister claimed today.

BIG companies in the Mid-West have agreed to give a helping hand to smaller ones in their area by sharing their expertise on how best to tackle waste management.

THE dismissal of a case in the United States which accused chemical companies of war crimes by supplying the US Army with Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, triggered angry protests from Vietnamese victims yesterday.

THE dismissal of a case in the United States which accused chemical companies of war crimes by supplying the US Army with Agent Orange in the Vietnam War, triggered angry protests from Vietnamese victims yesterday.

THE IDA yesterday said it was not concerned a new US corporate tax amnesty would have a negative impact on multinational investment and jobs in Ireland.

WYETH said second-quarter profit fell 4.3%, a smaller decline than analysts expected.

Elan and Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, a division of Wyeth, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office recently issued Neuralab Limited, a wholly owned subsidiary of Elan, three patents for the companies’ joint research on immunotherapeutic approaches to the treatment of Alzheimer’s disease.

THE Enterprise Strategy Group draws on expertise from across the Irish business landscape, with high-fliers from industry and trade unions as well as academics, venture capitalists and entrepreneurs.

US pharmaceutical firm Wyeth has announced plans to donate $500,000 (€421,000) to a project for sick children in Co Kildare.

Food service group Eurest has landed the contract to provide on-site food and catering services at Dublin Zoo, in a deal worth €10m over five years.

Science Foundation Ireland (SFI) has announced an award of €7.7m to University College Dublin's Conway Institute of Biomolecular and Biomedical Research.

FOUR hundred and fifty positions will be filled over the next 12 months in the Wyeth BioPharma facility in Dublin.

THE boundaries of Limerick will have be extended to allow the mid-west capital develop into a prosperous gateway city.

TWO thousand workers are to share an estimated 4 million in finishing bonuses after putting in seven million work hours at the €1 billion Wyeth BioPharma Campus in Dublin.