Novartis' Good Week

It was a busy week for pharmaceutical giant Novartis (NYSE:NVS). Yesterday the drugmaker received approval for its blood pressure drug Exforge, and today the European Union medical authorities gave a positive opinion on one of the pharma's generic biologic products.

The approval of Exforge will complement Novartis' portfolio of blood pressure therapies. This portfolio grew earlier in the year with the FDA marketing approval of Tekturna. Exforge is a drug that combines its $4.2 billion Diovan and Pfizer's (NYSE:PFE) Norvasc blood pressure treatments in a simpler-to-use tablet formulation.

The generic biologic that Novartis received a positive EU opinion on is a compound intended to be biosimilar to Amgen's (NASDAQ:AMGN) and Johnson & Johnson's (NYSE:JNJ) Procrit/Epogen. Following the EU opinion, final approval of the drug should come in a couple of months at most.

This EU recommendation is another watershed moment for the generic biopharmaceutical market, as there has been only one generic biologic approved for marketing in the EU and U.S. to date. That was another Novartis achievement last year.                               

For any conglomerate worth more than $100 billion, there are bound to be multiple setbacks and positive developments with its operations in any given week. Gaining regulatory approval to market a valuable blood pressure combination treatment and a future biogeneric compound in the span of two days is an achievement for any pharmaceutical company. Despite the setbacks with Galvus and Zelnorm earlier this year, this week proved that there are at least some good times ahead for Novartis.

Pfizer is an Inside Value recommendation, and Johnson & Johnson is an Income Investor selection.

Fool contributor Brian Lawler does not own shares of any company mentioned in this article. The Fool has a disclosure policy.