Merrill Lynch maintains Novartis at neutral

Novartis AG was maintained by Merrill Lynch analyst Hari Sambasivam at a neutral rating. Merrill Lynch said the company's global sales of $124 million were below estimates of $131 million. Increasing competition from Macugen appears to be the reason for a decline in U.S. sales, Merrill Lynch said. Merrill Lynch indicated that it would like to revisit its rating following disclosure of data from the Anchor study comparing Visudyne and Lucentis. Shares of the Basel, Switzerland-based company were up $1.88, or 3.66%, at $53.29 on volume of 4,654,600 shares versus the three-month running average of 1,110,780 shares.

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