• AstraZeneca plc, of London, and the Lead Discovery Center GmbH, of Dortmund, Germany, said they joined forces to discover new medicines for the treatment of diseases with high unmet need. Through a two-year collaboration, AstraZeneca will add 250,000 high-quality compounds to LDC's internal screening collection to pursue projects in the areas of oncology, neuroscience, respiratory and inflammation, cardiovascular, gastrointestinal and infection research. The LDC will identify compounds and take the most promising into further drug discovery by optimizing them into pharmaceuticals leads with in vivo proof of concept. AstraZeneca then will have a preferred right to obtain a license for preclinical and clinical development and commercialization. Terms will be agreed on an individual basis.

• Novartis AG, of Basel, Switzerland, said the FDA approved a new use of Gleevec (imatinib) to treat children newly diagnosed with Philadelphia chromosome-positive acute lymphoblastic leukemia. The tyrosine kinase inhibitor is indicated for use in combination with chemotherapy.

• Otsuka Pharmaceutical Co. Ltd., of Tokyo, and the FDA notified health care professionals of significant liver injury associated with the use of Samsca (tolvaptan). In a three-year study in about 1,400 patients with autosomal dominant polycystic kidney disease, three patients treated with the drug developed significant increases in serum alanine aminotransferase with concomitant, clinically significant increases in serum total bilirubin. Samsca is a selective vasopressin V2-receptor antagonist indicated for the treatment of clinically significaly hypervolemic and euvolemic hyponatremia.