The board of Czech generic drugs maker Zentiva N.V. said Friday it has recommended that its shareholders reject a takeover offer from French pharmaceuticals maker Sanofi-Aventis SA.

Drug company sales representatives will have to stop doling out coffee mugs and pens that push their products when they visit doctor's offices. But they can still sneak in the occasional free lunch.

Shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. inched up in premarket trading Tuesday, and a Goldman Sachs analyst recommended the stock despite disappointing trial results for Teva's multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.

Shares of Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. fell Monday after the company posted disappointing results from a higher-dose trial of multiple sclerosis drug Copaxone.

Sanofi-Aventis' experimental drug aflibercept failed to meet its goal in a mid-stage ovarian cancer study but the French drug maker said on Wednesday it had shown some promising signs of effectiveness.

Earnings out of Europe were mixed Wednesday as telecom giant Alcatel-Lucent cuts its telecom market forecast and reported a bigger-than-expected first-quarter net loss.

French drugmaker Sanofi-Aventis on Tuesday reported a 6.9 percent rise in fourth-quarter adjusted earnings per share and predicted a 7 percent gain for 2008 at a constant euro/dollar exchange rate.

Swiss drug maker Novartis said Thursday its fourth-quarter profit fell sharply, mainly due to restructuring costs, but that it would increase returns to shareholders with a new buyback program and an increase to its dividend.

The European Commission raided some of the world's largest drugmakers on Wednesday, launching a broad investigation into whether they made illegal deals or abused patents to limit competition and harm consumers.