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Actelion, Europe's largest biotech company, forecast an $80 million hit to 2009 operating profit after an arbitration panel ruled against a unit in a dispute with a Japanese drug firm. It is the second piece of bad news for Actelion this week, coming just after the group's key insomnia drug almorexant had unspecified safety problems in a late-stage trial, and reinforces the risky nature of the biotech business.
"This announcement comes as a negative surprise to us as we did not think that such a high indemnification would have to be paid," Helvea analyst Olav Zilian said in a note. "Although this is another negative surprise following the undisclosed safety observations made with almorexant, we believe that the market will not take today's announcement too negatively since it is a single, even if hefty, cash item," Zilian said. Shares in Actelion fell 0.4 percent lower at 55.85 Swiss francs, while the DJ Stoxx European healthcare sector was 0.5 percent firmer.

Copyright Reuters, 2009

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