London - British pharmaceuticals concern GlaxoSmithKline reported Wednesday that it managed to boost profits and sales in the third quarter despite the challenge posed by generic drugs.

GlaxoSmithKline said it earned 25.2 pence per share in the quarter, up from 23.7 pence in the corresponding period last year. Sales gained 7 per cent to 5.88 billion pounds.

The company said the weaker pound sterling had helped boost sales, in turn lessening the effects of the challenge posed by cheaper generic drugs.

New York - Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drug maker, said Tuesday that its quarterly earnings tripled on one-time items despite flat revenues.

Earnings rose to 2.28 billion dollars, or 34 cents a share, on job cuts and a favourable exchange rate, up from 761 million dollars, or 11 cents, in the year-earlier period when it was hit by a one-time charge for dropping an insulin drug, the company said in New York. Excluding one-time costs, profits rose 5 per cent.

Ahmedabad-based Zydus Cadila has informed that the company has received an approval from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to market Risperidone Tablets.

Market regulator Securities and Exchange Board of India (SEBI) has rejected to execute the stake sale of the Ranbaxy-Daiichi deal.

Earlier, the Indian company had asked both NSE, BSE for approving the deal via stock exchange. 

The NSE had sought SEBI's nod for the block deal given CCEA requirements. SEBI had already made it clear that it would not relax the norms on block deals.

Drug manufacturer, Wockhardt has got final nod from the US Food and Drug Administration (USFDA) to sell Risperidone drug.

The source close to the company said that the proposed medicine will be available in 0.25 mg, 0.5 mg, 1 mg, 2 mg, 3 mg and 4 mg respectively.

Risperidone is used in Psychiatric Medicine to treat cases of Schizophrenia, a form of relatively permanent disorder of the mind.

Aurobindo Pharma has also received sanction for the same drug.