Reuters) - Swiss drugmaker Novartis' first quarterly results under new CEO Vas Narasimhan have been marred by a prized psoriasis treatment that disappointed and a sharp slump in sales by its U.S. generics unit.

The stock declined 2.2 percent at 1200 GMT, more than double the fall of the broader European Healthcare index after the company released first-quarter earnings.

While Narasimhan confirmed 2018 growth targets, his Cosentyx drug for psoriasis and arthritis missed analyst expectations with revenue plunging from the fourth quarter.

And though price pressure on Novartis's Sandoz U.S. generics business is no secret, the 18 percent sales decline in the world's biggest market underscores the company's uphill struggle in the U.S. to market cheap, copycat pills amid fierce competition and insurers seeking to cut costs.

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U.S. Army General Curtis Scaparrotti and Valery Gerasimov met in Baku, Azerbaijan, less than a week after the United States, Britain and France staged missile strikes on Syria in retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack by the forces of President Bashar al-Assad - a close ally of Russia.

In separate statements, NATO and the Russian defence ministry said the meeting discussed military exercises and troop movements, as both sides accuse the other of risky deployments in the Baltic states and eastern Europe.

Scaparrotti and Gerasimov - who Western military officials say is a proponent of Russia's strategy of mixing military weaponry with cyber warfare and disinformation - discussed "questions concerning NATO and Russian military activity in the European region", the Russian defence ministry said.

NATO said the meeting "focused on issues related to military posture and exercises" - defence parlance for how to avoid military accidents that might lead to war. "The two military leaders used the … channel to foster predictability and transparency."

The Russian side said the pair also talked about the seven-year-long civil war in Syria, where Moscow and the West back opposing sides, and combating Islamic militants.

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