NEW YORK (Reuters) – Novo Nordisk’s (NOVOb.CO: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz) long-term profit targets are hanging in the balance after a big setback in the U.S. market but the Danish drugmaker may yet hit its goal if things work out for one of two drugs, its CEO said.

Chief Executive Lars Sorensen told the Reuters Health Summit on Tuesday that success for a new obesity drug or a green light for long-acting insulin Tresiba – based on interim data from a safety study demanded by regulators – could keep Novo on track.

NEW YORK, May 7 (Reuters) – A new generation of drug
industry chief executives is stepping up plans to restructure
their businesses by divesting slower-growing and maturing
operations, opening up new opportunities for deal-makers.

Bankers speaking at the Reuters Health Summit said the
success of transactions such as Pfizer Inc’s
divestitures of noncore assets and Abbott Laboratories
splitting off its innovative drugs into AbbVie Inc had
fuelled a wider rethink across the industry.

NEW YORK, May 6 (Reuters) – The World Health Organization’s
ability to police the new strain of bird flu that has killed 27
people in China is being jeopardized by budget cuts, according
to a top U.S. official.

“One of the things that, frankly, concerns us is the ability
of WHO to respond effectively,” Dr. Thomas Frieden, director of
the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, told the
Reuters Health Summit in New York on Monday.

LONDON, May 3 (Reuters) – Is nanomedicine the next big
thing? A growing number of top drug companies seem to think so.

The ability to encapsulate potent drugs in tiny particles
measuring billionths of a metre in diameter is opening up new
options for super-accurate drug delivery, increasing precision
hits at the site of disease with, hopefully, fewer side effects.