Novartis

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:

Shares of Novartis soared higher on Wednesday, after the Swiss drug maker finally obtained the remaining outstanding shares of Alcon for $12.9 billion.

At the 52nd annual meeting of the American Society of Hematology, which wraps up Tuesday, Novartis, Celgene and Seattle Genetics revealed the latest news from their studies on blood diseases and cancers. But despite some positive results, all three had down days in the stock market.

Here's a roundup of some of Wednesday's major pharmaceutical news: An FDA panel gave Human Genome Sciences a boost with a thumbs-up for its lupus drug, Benlysta; Merck's experimental heart drug appears to work well without side effects; and Novartis announced its plans for long-term growth.

Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis announced Tuesday that it had discontinued the development of two drugs -- the hepatitis C treatment Zalbin, and antifungal agent Mycograb. The company will take impairment charges of approximately $590 million in third quarter of 2010.

Novartis (NVS) agreed to sell the U.S. rights to bladder medicine Enablex for $400 million. Ireland-based Warner Chilcott will take over the marketing, sales and manufacturing of the drug in the United States, Novartis said in a statement. The deal is expected to close by the end of October....

Shares of Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis were up about 1.5% in morning trading Monday following its announcement over the weekend that its Onbrez Breezhaler was found to be more effective at treating lung disease than a standard medicine from GlaxoSmithKline.

Pharmaceutical giant Novartis lost a huge gender discrimination case in May, and faced $250 million in punitive damages, plus possibly hundreds of millions more in compensatory damages. Rather than deal with years of appeals, both sides settled Wednesday for $152 million.

Novartis (NVS) shares climbed 1.4% in early trading Thursday after the drugmaker reported that its second-quarter profit rose 18%. Strong demand for newly launched products offset drug price cuts in Europe and helped improve margins. Novarits also raised its sales outlook for the year as it...

Now that they are nearly done squeezing Swiss bank UBS for information about its wealthy tax-dodging clients, the IRS and the Justice Department are moving on to new tax fraud targets: Clients of London-based bank HSBC Holdings, mostly those with ties to India and Singapore.