Teva Pharmaceutical Industries said on Friday it would buy rival generic drugmaker Barr Pharmaceuticals for $7.46  billion to expand its leadership in the U.S. market and fortify its presence in Europe.

Second-quarter net profit at Novartis rose 17 percent to $2.27 billion, helped by the weak U.S. dollar and cost cutting efforts, beating forecasts and boosting its shares.

Genentech earnings fell short of analysts' expectations, but the company's shares rose slightly in extended trading as the firm lifted its profit forecast for the full year.

New evidence of the power of the multi-billion dollar impotence drugs. A study just out in the peer-reviewed "British Medical Journal" says that the elderly are having sex more often, possibly due to the popular pills for erectile dysfunction.

Drug developer Eli Lilly will buy SGX Pharmaceuticals for about $64 million in cash in an effort to expand its drug discovery efforts, the companies said Tuesday.

Abbott Laboratories won U.S. approval to sell its drug-coated heart stent called Xience, the company said on Wednesday.

U.S. regulators did not approve Merck & Co's application to expand marketing of its cervical cancer vaccine Gardasil to an older group of women within an expected review period, the drugmaker said.

Walgreen posted a 2 percent increase in quarterly profit as sales were muted by a weak U.S. economy and slowing growth in prescription drug sales.

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.

A study claims "the time has come" for researchers to study ED drugs as preventive medicine for the heart.

Genentech said on Thursday a trial of Avastin in colon cancer patients who have undergone surgery will be completed earlier than expected due to faster collection of data and a higher-than-planned number of patients with stage III cancer.

Too few influential doctors are telling the public if they have financial ties to the companies that make lifesaving drug-coated stents.

Genentech and Biogen Idec said a key study of Rituxan did not meet its main goal of a response in patients with systemic lupus erythematosus, commonly called lupus.

U.S. health regulators have rejected a new drug from Merck that was designed to raise the level of HDL, or "good" cholesterol, the company said, sending its shares plunging more than 10 percent.

Australia's Sigma Pharmaceuticals and grocery wholesaler Metcash are in talks over a joint bid for assets being sold by Primary Health Care, both companies said on Tuesday.