The European Chemicals Agency has given Novartis potentially significant support in its battle over a toxic chemical that the company uses for making an ingredient found in two medicines.
At a meeting last month, the agency decided to support a Novartis request for a seven-year exemption from a pending ban on diglyme, which is used to make indacaterol, an ingredient in treatments for chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (see section 23 on page 34). A final decision, however, must still be made by the European Commission, and it is unclear when that will happen. The ban goes into effect in August 2017.
