The statement said: "AstraZeneca is evaluating Ranbaxy's notice and continues to have full confidence in its intellectual property protecting Nexium."Last month, a generic drug maker filed a similar request for regulatory approval for its version of Seroquel, the schizophrenia drug that has overtaken Nexium to be AstraZeneca's best-seller.. ARM Holdings, the designer of advanced microchips, unnerved the stock market yesterday by cutting expected revenue growth for 2005 to 15 per cent, the bottom of its previously announced range of 15 to 20 per cent. After issuing its third-quarter results for the three months to 30 September, the company's shares fell more than 10 per cent as investors worried that profits might be hit, although ARM insisted that earnings per share would be in line with expectations. This is the second time ARM has tried to talk down revenue-growth expectations. The launch of such generic versions of branded medicines typically causes the branded medicine to lose more than three-quarters of its sales within months.An AstraZeneca statement said yesterday its lawyers had 45 days to decide whether to launch a patent infringement lawsuit against Ranbaxy, which analysts said was all but certain. AstraZeneca is planning to launch a legal challenge to block early competition for its best-selling medicine, after an Indian company challenged the validity of several of the pharmaceutical giant's key patents.

News that Ranbaxy Laboratories is gearing up to launch a copycat rival of Nexium, an ulcer pill with global sales of more than £2.5bn a year, sent AstraZeneca shares down 2 per cent yesterday. Nexium, the company's best-selling drug, is still growing sales at about 25 per cent a year and is protected by patents stretching to 2018, the company said. Ranbaxy says it does not accept the validity of several of the later patents - which cover the way the drug is made, rather than its active ingredient - and will launch its cheaper version in the US, if approved as safe, in October 2007. Overall savings from the acquisition are forecast to be £100m in 2006, rising to £130m a year by 2008. But Aviva said that it expected to take a one-off hit of £130m in the process of realising the savings.Mark Hodges, the managing director of Norwich Union's general insurance business, said the revisions came as a result of the group's chance to take a closer look at the RAC business since the deal was completed in May.The company said that it now expects to have an extra 1.4 million RAC customers by the end of 2008, while the RAC's insurance division will see customer numbers rise by 50 per cent to 900,000 over that period.In the longer term, the group said that it is hoping to be able to grow its general insurance and roadside rescue businesses, by exploiting the opportunities to cross-sell between the businesses.Aviva shares closed up just a little more than 3 per cent at 641.5p, giving the group a market value of £15.2bn.. But it said that it now expects it to be below 98 per cent.The company added that it also now expects total pre-tax profits within the RAC to reach £250m a year by 2008, on the back of increased cost savings and improved revenue growth. Anything below 100 per cent signifies a profit. The group had originally targeted a combined ratio of 100 per cent this year. In a statement to the market yesterday morning, the company said that it expected the entire group's combined operating ratio - a key measure of insurers' profitability - to improve by 1 percentage point this year.

It's not good for Empire but PartyGaming will see a net benefit.". Shares in Aviva, the UK's largest insurer, leapt as much as 5.5 per cent yesterday as the Norwich Union-owning group raised its profit forecasts for RAC, the roadside rescue company which it bought for £1.1bn this year. Richard Carter, at Numis Securities, slashed his 2005 estimate to $54.9m in pre-tax profits. Assuming a 40 per cent drop in gross poker profits in each of next year's quarters, he cut his profits forecast for next year to $68.1m from $103.3m.Robin Chhabra, at Evolution Securities, said: "The churn rates are up, [Empire's] customers don't like the new arrangement with reduced liquidity and are moving away. The move restricts the access skins have to PartyGaming's pool of customers and to some of its technology.PartyGaming's announcement came on the same day that Empire warned growth in its market was flat in the three months to the end of September.