AFP - US pharmaceutical giant Merck has reached an agreement with US tax authorities to cough up 2.3 billion dollars to settle a long-running tax dispute, the Internal Revenue Service said.

Reuters - CVS Corp. sweetened its bid for Caremark Rx Inc. on Tuesday by tripling a proposed special cash dividend for the pharmacy benefit manager's stockholders to $6 per share, after proxy advisory firms urged rejection of the previous offer.

Reuters - Swiss pharmaceutical company Novartis AG said it has mapped the genome of a large group of type-2 diabetes patients, enabling scientists to better search for the genes causing the disease.

AP - Prescription drugs were found in Anna Nicole Smith's hotel room, but there were no pills in her stomach, and investigators said Friday they are awaiting tests that could tell whether the former centerfold died of an overdose, as some close to her suspect.

AFP - Swiss pharmaceutical giant Roche has posted a record full year net profit of 9.2 billion Swiss francs (7.4 billion dollars, 5.7 billion euros) in 2006, but its shares fell in morning trading as investors opted for profit-taking.