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There must be some long faces at Daniel Vasella’s favoured charities. The retiring chairman of Novartis had promised to give away all of the net proceeds from 72 million Swiss francs ($78-million) of non-compete payments over the next six years. But there will be far more smiles after Tuesday’s announcement that the deal was off. The Swiss drugmaker’s board capitulated to furious Swiss citizens, indignant shareholders and irritated analysts.