Roche rebound

Swiss drug giant Roche reported sales surging by 20% in 2005, to reach 35.5 billion Swiss francs (US$27.8 billion). The numbers were driven by the Basel-based company's portfolio of cancer drugs, whose sales rose by 42% — and by strong demand for Tamiflu, the influenza treatment that countries are stockpiling in preparation for a possible pandemic. Sales of the drug almost quadrupled, to 1.56 billion Swiss francs.

Mighty wind

Power companies in the United States erected enough wind turbines in 2005 to supply 2,500 megawatts of electricity, says the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), based inWashington DC. The trade group predicts the installation of another 3,000 megawatts of wind power in 2006 — a big increase on the previous record level of installation, which was 1,700 megawatts in 2001, but still less than half the capacity installed in Europe last year. The AWEA wants Congress to extend a subsidy arrangement that encourages utilities to install wind power.

Eyes on the prize

A Boston biotechnology company devoted to discovering novel combinations of existing drugs announced a collaboration aimed at exploiting the market for eye-disease medications. CombinatoRx (see Nature 439, 390–391; 2006) has signed up Fovea Pharmaceuticals of Paris, France, a new, privately held biotechnology firm, to fund and conduct preclinical, early and mid-stage clinical development of combinations of eye drugs from the Boston company's proprietary database. Fovea will receive exclusive commercial rights to the resulting products in Europe.