Zurich - Cytos Biotechnology said Tuesday a vaccine it was developing for hypertension has failed to show positive results and the company would scale back a significant amount of its workforce in response.

The company's stock was down over 33 per cent in mid-afternoon trading on the Zurich exchange following the announcement.

"The study results show that the vaccine was safe and well tolerated, but the new treatment regimen failed to induce a significant reduction of the ambulatory blood pressure," Cytos said in a statement.

Geneva - The United Nations emergency air service, used to move food, medical assistance and aid workers to remote and dangerous locations, will have to shut its West Africa operation due to a lack of funds, the organisation announced on Tuesday.

The air service, run by the World Food Programme, is used to get aid and staff to areas that cannot be reached by land, whether owing to security concerns, lack of infrastructure or rough terrain.

Geneva - Lindt & Spruengli, the Swiss chocolate manufacturer, said Tuesday it would not meet profit and growth targets this year due to the global economic downturn.

In a statement the company said "2009 is set to be a year of transition, in which long-term growth and earning targets will not be attained."

Zurich - The Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche would acquire German cell analysis firm Innovatis for 15 million euros, the two companies announced Monday.

"This acquisition is a further step in our strategy to strengthen our position as a complete solution provider in the cell analysis research market," Jurgen Schwiezer, from Roche's diagnostics division, said in a statement.

Nyon, Switzerland - European football boss Michel Platini said that the utmost will be done not to make Liverpool play a Champions League match on the 20th anniversary of the Hillsborough tragedy.

Platini said in a UEFA statement issued on Monday that he sympathises with Liverpool and that UEFA will take the April 15, 1989, tragedy into account when the dates for the quarter-final pairings are decided.

Geneva - The oil ministers of Saudi Arabia and Iran said Monday their target goal for the price of oil was between 60 to 75 dollars a barrel.

"The days of oil as a primary fuel source for the people of the world are far from over," Saudi Minister of Petroleum Ali al-Naimi said.

His Iranian counterpart, Gholam Nozari, concurred with the assessment on the ideal price a barrel of oil should fetch on the market.