Andrew Moss quits insurance giant to join ex-AstraZeneca and Trinity Mirror chiefs

Shareholders have claimed another high-profile scalp as Britain's biggest insurer announced the abrupt exit of its chief executive.

Shareholders are becoming bolder – and a welcome, if belated, development that is, too.

The burst of M&A activity in the pharmaceuticals industry continued yesterday when AstraZeneca announced a $1.26bn (£783m) deal to buy the US company Ardea Biosciences, which is working on a new medicine to battle gout.

AstraZeneca is taking the United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to court, in an attempt to overturn last week's ruling that rivals can start selling generic copies of the pharmaceutical giant's second best-selling drug Seroquel in the country by the end of this month.

AstraZeneca named Leif Johansson, the chairman of the telecoms group Ericsson, as the next head of its board, as the pharma giant battles to overcome a cocktail of problems developing new drugs and selling old ones.

Investment Insider

The Analyst

As the top-tier index's rally was brought to a shuddering halt last night, Sage managed to finish ahead thanks to talk that investors flush with cash after recent takeover activity in the sector will turn to the software group next.

Experts are continuing to investigate how some packs of Nurofen Plus came to contain strips of a potentially harmful anti-psychotic drug.

Users of the pain reliever Nurofen Plus have been warned to check packets carefully after reports that they may contain anti-psychotic drugs.