Eli Lilly

It's widely known that millionaires and billionaires pay taxes at a lower rate than those of us who make much less. But did you know that Americans collectively pay far higher income tax rates than many U.S. companies with billions of dollars in profits?

Drug companies spend hundreds of millions of dollars a year to influence doctors' prescribing habits -- money that often goes directly into physicians' pockets for "consulting fees" and "educational presentations." Wondering if your doc is one of them? The nonprofit journalists at ProPublica can tell you.

They call it the Great "Recession," but there's no question that these are depressing times. And doctors are writing scripts for antidepressants at an alarming rate -- especially given that many of these doctors aren't psychiatrists. What are the effects on patients who haven't been properly screened?

The pharmaceutical industry is ready to fall off a cliff -- a "patent cliff." Over the next few years, some of the world's most popular and lucrative medicines will go off patent, and generic competition will siphon an estimated quarter of a trillion dollars from drugmakers' bottom lines.

Pfizer reported fourth-quarter earnings on Tuesday that nearly quadrupled from a year ago as revenue rose 6%. But it also lowered its sales guidance for 2012, due to some of its bestselling drugs going off patent. What's ahead for the world's biggest drugmaker:

Medical imaging and diagnostics powerhouse GE Healthcare teams up with pharmaceutical giant Johnson & Johnson to research methods of detecting Alzheimer's in patients -- even before they begin to exhibit symptoms of the devastating disease.

Eli Lilly's blockbuster antidepressant Cymbalta can now also be marketed as a treatment for chronic musculoskeletal pain, such as osteoarthritis and lower back pain, following FDA approval yesterday.

Shares of pharmaceutical companies Amylin, Alkermes, and Eli Lilly -- partners in a new diabetes drug Bydureon -- have tanked in morning trading as the U.S. Food and Drug Administration declined on Tuesday to approve the drug without additional clinical studies.

Eli Lilly has halted the development of an Alzheimer's treatment after studies showed the experimental drug not only failed to slow the disease's progression, it actually reduced patients' cognition.

Pharmaceutical giant Roche said Friday that it would delay an FDA filing for its new diabetes drug for 12 to 18 months due to safety concerns. The beneficiary of Roche's misfortune is rival Amylin, which now jumps ahead in the race to get first approval of a once-weekly injectable type 2 diabetes drug.