pharmaceutical industry

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.

Officially, it's the FDA's job to ensure that pharmaceutical ads adhere to guidelines. But the agency's annual compliance budget is $9 million, while drug companies spend $58 billion a year on marketing. So it comes as no surprise that only 18% of ads are in compliance with the rules. But it's still disturbing: This is your health.

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.

Pharmaceutical companies looking for fresh sources of profit are increasingly investing in a range of health care innovations that aren't drugs at all, from smartphone apps and educational websites to social media platforms and wireless devices, reports Ernst & Young.

French drug company Sanofi-Aventis (SNY) has finally made a deal to buy biotech company Genzyme (GENZ) for $20.1 billion, about $74 a share. Genzyme shareholders will get a contingent value right that represents potential future payments if Lemtrada, the company's multiple sclerosis drug, is a...

What is preventing the French pharmaceutical group and U.S. biotech from reaching a merger agreement?

When Merck halted a late-stage study of its potential clot-preventing drug vorapaxar in stroke victims last week, it didn't explain why. Now, the company has confirmed it stopped the study after concerns that the drug increased the risk of bleeding in some patients.

Can a market research firm sell a doctor's prescribing history to a pharmaceutical company without his or her permission? The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to hear this First Amendment case, which could change drug marketing and have a major impact on data-gathering practices.

Mergers, acquisitions and major restructurings made Big Pharma a much smaller and leaner sector, with some 54,000 jobs lost. At least that's better than 2009's 61,000 layoffs.

Led by the health insurance reform law, a flurry of drug and food recalls, key medical breakthroughs and plenty of layoffs and lawsuits, 2010 proved to be an exciting -- if not always positive -- year. Here's our rundown of the biggest health care stories.