In late December 2003, when Pfizer Inc. agreed to buy out Esperion Therapeutics Inc. for $1.3 billion - $35 per share, which amounted to a 54 percent premium to the average closing price during the previous 20 days - the pharmaceutical giant paid big for an opportunity that seemed even bigger.

Like a broken record playing a song investors never tire of hearing, Genentech Inc. chalked up another satisfying quarter, with Avastin and Herceptin sales benefiting from a parade of positive news this spring. (BioWorld Today)

With its Reverse Cholesterol Transport (RCT) program only at the preclinical stage, Avanir Pharmaceuticals Inc. nailed down a potential $340 million development and commercialization deal with AstraZeneca plc, which has agreed to pay $10 million of that amount up front. (BioWorld Today)

The much-touted multiple sclerosis drug from Biogen Idec Inc., which pumped investors' hopes and then bombed, continues to grab headlines, albeit smaller ones. The drug was pulled from the market in February after it was linked to patient deaths from progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy.

Just more than a year after disclosing its plan to buy out Ascent Pediatrics Inc., thereby gaining the pediatric asthma drug Orapred and a 66-person sales force, BioMarin Pharmaceutical Inc. is laying off 58 people - mostly from that team - in response to the launch of two new generic forms of the corticosteroid. (BioWorld Today)

Some might be skeptical, but Millennium Pharmaceuticals Inc.'s new president and CEO Deborah Dunsire targets 2006 for the firm to hit non-GAAP profitability, though "we're certainly not going to do stupid stuff just to take care of the short term," she said. (BioWorld Today)