Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche agreed Thursday to pay $46.8 billion in cash to buy the 44 percent of California-based biotech pioneer Genentech that it doesn't already own, ending a long corporate struggle between the companies. ...more

March 13, 2009

Merck & Co. is buying Schering-Plough Corp. for $41.1 billion in a deal that gives Merck key new businesses, access to a promising pipeline of new products and the chance to cut costs by $3.5 billion more per year, including eliminating about 16,000 jobs. ...more

March 10, 2009

For the first time, an expensive vaccine aimed at preventing cervical cancer in women has proven successful at preventing a disease in men, a study released Thursday by the vaccine's maker said. ...more

November 14, 2008

Two HIV drugs approved last year for patients who have developed resistance to older drugs also work well with new patients, and with fewer troubling side effects than a widely used regimen, according to the drugs' manufacturers. ...more

October 27, 2008

A vaccine against rotavirus, the leading cause of diarrhea in infants, has led to a dramatic drop in hospitalization and emergency room visits since it came on the market two years ago, doctors reported Saturday. ...more

October 27, 2008

One in four teen girls have rolled up their sleeves for the relatively new vaccine against a virus that causes cervical cancer, federal health officials said Thursday. ...more

October 10, 2008

Federal drug safety regulators said Thursday they are investigating whether the cholesterol-lowering drug Vytorin can increase patients' risk of developing cancer. ...more

August 22, 2008

Merck & Co. has agreed to pay $58 million as part of a multistate settlement of allegations that its ads for the once-popular painkiller Vioxx deceptively played down the health risks. ...more

May 21, 2008

Merck & Co. plans to eliminate 1,200 U.S. sales jobs, a move that comes a week after federal regulators' surprise rejection of an experimental cholesterol drug heavily touted by the pharmaceutical company. ...more

May 7, 2008

Merck & Co. will pay $671 million to settle claims it overcharged government health programs for four popular drugs and gave doctors fees and gifts to induce them to prescribe its drugs, U.S. prosecutors and company officials said Thursday. ...more

February 8, 2008