Asthma Healing

The German drug maker Altana said an asthma and bronchitis medicine had performed well in tests and would move into the final stage of testing, setting off a sharp rally in the company's stock price.

The medicine, called Roflumilast, will move into the last of three testing stages for chronic bronchitis, after having shown good results in Phase 3 studies for asthma. The company, which is controlled by the billionaire Quandt family, is developing new products to reduce its dependence on Protonix, an ulcer treatment that accounted for almost one-third of the company's sales last year.