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NORWALK, Conn. The global pharmaceutical market will reach a value of $880 billion next year, according to a report by market research firm IMS Health.

IMS Health forecasted 5% to 7% growth in 2011 in its annual IMS Market Prognosis, compared with 4% to 5% growth this year.

NEW YORK A few weeks after Johnson & Johnson announced it would purchase the remainder of Dutch biotech firm Crucell it doesn't already own for about $2.4 billion, J&J received backing for the bid.

Crucell recommended the offer to the shareholders but not without receiving some criticism from shareholders Delta Lloyd Asset Management, Robeco and the Van Herk Group, which said the offer from J&J "undervalued" Crucell's worth. The fund managers jointly control at least 15.5% of Crucell, according to Reuters.

WILMINGTON, Del. AstraZeneca will provide medications free of charge to qualifying patients in Sacramento, Calif., through its prescription savings program, the Anglo-Swedish drug maker said Wednesday.

NEW YORK Pfizer on Wednesday announced the completion of its acquisition of a privately held drug discovery and clinical development company.

FoldRx now is a wholly owned subsidiary of Pfizer, Pfizer said. FoldRx's portfolio includes clinical and preclinical programs for investigational compounds to treat diseases caused by protein misfolding, which increasingly is recognized as an underlying cause in many chronic degenerative diseases.

The acquisition was announced Sept. 1.

SCHAUMBURG, Ill. Generic drug maker Sagent Pharmaceuticals has launched two injectable antibiotics, the company said Tuesday.

Sagent announced the launch of ampicillin and ampicillin with sulbactam. Ampicillin had sales of around $42 million during the 12-month period ended in June, while ampicillin with sulbactam had sales of around $40 million during the same period, according to IMS Health.

ROCKVILLE, Md. Human Genome Sciences and Novartis have decided not to further develop an investigative biologic treatment for hepatitis C following the Food and Drug Administration’s decision to decline its approval, HGS said Tuesday.

HGS said it received a complete response letter from the FDA concerning the drug Zalbin (albinterferon alfa-2b). The FDA delivers a complete response letter to indicate that it has finished reviewing an application, but questions remain that preclude final approval.

HUENENBERG, Switzerland Eye care company Alcon has appointed a new executive.

The Swiss drug maker announced Monday the appointment of Robert Karsunky as SVP and CFO, effective Nov. 1. He succeeds Richard Croarkin, who has served as Alcon’s CFO since August 2007.

BURLINGTON, Mass. The drug market for ulcerative colitis treatments will see modest growth through 2019, according to a new report by Decision Resources.

The research and advisory firm said that the UC drug market will see growth of $800 million, driven by the uptake of Abbott and Eisai's Humira, Centocor Ortho Biotech/Merck/Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma/Janssen's Simponi and Millennium's vedolizumab in the United States, France, Germany, Italy, Spain, United Kingdom and Japan.