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Novartis AG can sell in the U.S. the first imitation of a bioengineered drug approved by the Food and Drug Administration, a judge ruled in a setback for Amgen Inc. A federal judge in San Francisco allowed Novartis’s Sandoz unit to sell its version of Amgen’s $1.2 billion-a-year Neupogen cancer drug. The so-called biosimilar may save the U.S. health-care system as much as $5.7 billion in the next 10 years, according to an estimate by Express Scripts Holding Co., the largest pharmacy benefit manager in the U.S. (Pettersson, 3/19)

A federal judge rejected Amgen Inc.'s effort to temporarily block a competitor from releasing a copycat version of one of its top-selling biologic drugs. The Thousand Oaks biotech company had accused Novartis subsidiary Sandoz of violating the law in its effort to sell a version of Amgen’s infection-fighting drug Neupogen in the United States. (Pfeifer, 3/19)

Biogen Idec Inc.’s experimental drug for Alzheimer’s slowed progression of the disease in a study, offering a glimmer of hope after a string of failures by competitors who have tackled the ailment. The shares rose in early U.S. trading before markets opened. (Kitamura, 3/20)

There’s a revolution under way in stroke care, and it’s not just patients who stand to benefit. Medtronic Plc and others who make tiny surgical devices to pluck blood clots from the brain are set for a jump in orders. Victims of stroke, the world’s second-biggest killer, are more likely to recover if doctors swiftly intervene to restore blood flow to the brain instead of relying on clot-busting drugs alone, new research shows. (Gale, 3/19)