A LAY congregation established in the mid-nineteenth century to care for the sick of Rome was reported this week to have acquired a company that specialises in cancer research from the pharmaceuticals giant - and maker of the Viagra male sexual potency pill - Pfizer.

According to the London-based Financial Times, the Congregation of the Sons of the Immaculate Conception has acquired the loss-making Pfizer "spin-off", Nerviano Medical Systems. The company, with 650 employees, received a £150-million cash injection from Pfizer before the acquisition. This guaranteed two years' viability, a term extended to three years by subsequent cost-cutting. The company specialises in agents used in chemotherapy treatments, and the emerging disciplines of genomics and molecular biology. The NMS chairman, Umberto Rosa, was quoted as saying that if one of the first new NMS products was successful, the company would break even. If not, it would go well into the red.

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