Reuters -- Vectura (VEC.L) said on Monday its Swiss partner Novartis had started final-stage trials of a combination lung drug, triggering a $7.5 million milestone payment for the British company. The drug QVA149 -- which combines Vectura’s “smoker’s lung” drug NVA237 with Novartis’s QAB149, or indacaterol -- had been expected to enter Phase III in the fourth quarter of last year, but was delayed by U.S. regulators wanting information on the dosing proposed for indacaterol.
