At a ceremony at the WHO's headquarters in Geneva, Joseph Jimenez, CEO of Novartis, and Dr Margaret Chan, Director-General of the WHO, signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue their collaboration toward a world free of leprosy.

Pfizer Inc.(NYSE: PFE) and King Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (NYSE: KG) have entered into a definitive merger agreement. Under the terms of the agreement, Pfizer will acquire King, a diversified specialty pharmaceutical discovery and clinical development company, for $3.6 billion in cash, or $14.25 per share, which represents a premium of approximately 40% to King's closing price as of October 11, 2010, and 46% percent to the one-month average closing price as of the same date.

H. Lundbeck A/S (Lundbeck) and Merck & Co. (Merck), also known outside the United States and Canada as MSD, today announced a commercialisation agreement for SYCREST® (asenapine) sublingual tablets (5 mg, 10 mg).

Boehringer Ingelheim announced promising results from two clinical trials of its investigational cancer compound afatinib (BIBW 2992) presented at the 35 th European Society for Medical Oncology (ESMO) Congress in Milan, Italy.

Amgen (Nasdaq:AMGN) announced results from two integrated analyses of head-to-head pivotal Phase 3 trials comparing denosumab to Zometa(R) (zoledronic acid), the current standard of care in the prevention of skeletal related events (SREs) in patients with advanced malignancies involving bone.

Abbott (NYSE: ABT) was named one of the top 20 employers in Science magazine's 2010 Top Biopharma Employers survey. The annual survey seeks to identify the companies with the best reputations as employers. According to the survey, Abbott's top three driving characteristics were: clear vision, loyal employees, and does important, quality research.

Genzyme Corp. (NASDAQ: GENZ) announced that its board of directors has voted unanimously to reject the unsolicited $69.00 per share tender offer from Sanofi-Aventis, and the board recommends that Genzyme shareholders not tender their shares to Sanofi-Aventis pursuant to the offer. The board considered the following factors, among others, when making its recommendation: