Glaxo has taken 19 % share of Aspen

GlaxoSmithKline has taken a 19 per cent stake in Africa's biggest generic drugmaker, Aspen Pharmacare, after completing a strategic collaboration with the South African group. Earlier Glaxo had originally said it would have a 16 per cent holding when the deal was announced in May.

Aspen has issued 68.5 million new shares to Glaxo in exchange for Glaxo's manufacturing plant in Bad Oldesloe, Germany, and eight specialist medicines.

Selling branded generic drugs in emerging markets is a central plank to diversify Glaxo's business away from its traditional reliance on blockbuster medicines in Western countries. In addition to the tie-up with Aspen, Glaxo also has deals with Dr Reddy's Laboratories and a number of Chinese partners.

Indian inflation rises

The first monthly data released by the Government of india on 14^th Nov 2009 showed inflation more than doubled to 1.34 per cent in October compared to 0.5 per cent a month earlier as essential food items turned costlier.

Interestingly, the build-up inflation in the financial year so far was 6.13 per cent compared to 5.99 per cent in the corresponding period of the previous year.In variance with the earlier practice of a weekly release, this is the first time the government has come out with comprehensive inflation data on a monthly basis with 1993-94 as the base year.

On an annual basis, prices of potato have doubled since October last year, while onions were expensive by 37 per cent. At the same time other items like vegetable were costlier by 23 per cent, sugar by 45%. If the inflationary pressure continues then RBI likely to tighten the credit policy in early next year.

Norway is the best place to Live. UNDP report

Norway takes the number one spot in the annual United Nations human development index released. The index compiled by the UN Development Programme (UNDP) ranks 182 countries based on such criteria as life expectancy, literacy, school enrolment and gross domestic product (GDP) per capita.

Norway, Australia and Iceland took the first three spots while Niger ranks at the very bottom. The bottom three ranked countries in this year’s HDI, in order, are: Niger, Afghanistan (included for the first time since 1996) and Sierra Leone.


The UNDP said the index highlights the grave disparities between rich and poor countries. This year's index was based on data from 2007 and does not take into account the impact of the global economic crisis.


The top ten countries listed on the index are: Norway, Australia, Iceland, Canada, Ireland, the Netherlands, Sweden, France, Switzerland and Japan.