As IN VIVOwent to press, we received news that the Food & Drug Administration had rejected Novartis AG 's application for approval of tegaserod (Zelnorm), arguably the company's most important new drug and the only important treatment on the near-horizon for irritable bowel syndrome (IBS). The blow is doubly devastating for the company, coming as it does just weeks after Novartis withdrew the drug's marketing application in Europe when the European Medicines Evaluation Agency (EMEA) appeared ready to deny it approval.
Reaction was predictable. Novartis shares have fallen about 10% since the EMEA meeting—the delays will cost the company, if analysts'...