The final piece of a single patent system for the EU was signed into place in Brussels by Enterprise Minister Richard Bruton, cutting the cost of registering patents from €36,000 to €5,000.

The largest biotechnology company in the world, Amgen has announced that it is to purchase the Pfizer manufacturing facility in Dun Laoghaire, Co Dublin.

THE purchase of a minority stake in AIB by the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce (CIBC) would ease the threat of nationalisation hanging over the Irish bank.