An investigation has been started after a woman was refused contraceptive pill because it was against the pharmacist's religion to issue them.

A female chemist at Lloyds pharmacy in Duke Street, Sheffield, denied Janine Deeley, 38, her routine prescription of the medicine.

The female took Deeley, mother-of-two, into a private area and told that she would not be given the pills on religious grounds but she could come back the next day to buy them, when a different pharmacist was working.

The Dutch Health Ministry has intended to sell back its 21 million unexploited H1N1 flu vaccine doses, as the Government doesn't find its requirement anymore.

The Health Ministry has been advancing to GlaxoSmithKline and Novartis for the selling back those doses.

However, the Ministry has refused to provide the exact details of the cost of these doses, as of now.

When the Swine Flu Pandemic was at its peak, the Dutch Government had ordered more than 34 million doses of the tamiflu.

Drug firm Reckitt Benckiser could face a fine of £750million, as it has been accused of using its power to rig the market by stopping GPs giving out cheaper drugs, especially the heartburn medicine Gaviscon.

Reckitt could be fined tens of millions of Pounds and be forced to pay up to £40m to the National Health Service.

Anglo-Swedish drugs giant AstraZeneca announced on Tuesday that it would pay 505 million pounds to HM Revenue & Customs to settle a long-running tax-row.

AstraZeneca had been entangled in a tax dispute over transfer pricing with the HMRC for the last 15 years.

The drugs firm would pay 350 million pounds in March this year, while the rest amount will be paid in March 2011.

After settling a 15-year dispute with U. K. tax authorities, drug manufacturer AstraZeneca PLC raised its 2010 earnings.

AstraZeneca will pay £505 million ($781.7 million) in two installments to resolve the so-called "transfer pricing" claims dating back to 1996. Transfer pricing refers to the pricing of assets, services and funds transferred within an organization.

It plans to release part of its revenue to deal with the U. K. settlement.

Shire, Britain's third-largest drugs firm, reported better-than-expected fourth quarter results, accounting for 23% rise in it and predicted a return to profit growth in 2010. The robust performance has made its shares to register to a new nine-year high.

The shares leapt 60p to 1370p and hit 1414p during a frenetic period of trading.

It revealed that its earnings for the final three months of 2009 advanced a stellar 30 per cent to £203million.

British drug maker Shire PLC announced on Friday that its fourth-quarter net profit climbed year-on-year 23 per cent to $174.3 million, driven mainly by the strong sales of attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder treatment drug Vyvanse.

The British group expects revenue to grow again in 2010 as it has plans to launch six new drugs this year.

Revenues from Vyvanse alone jumped more than expected 41 per cent to $145 million during the final three months of last year.

Biogen Idec Inc. is planning the first clinical trial to use controversial multiple sclerosis treatment Tysabri whose generic name is natalizumab and is sold with Elan Corp. The long-term trial, will measure the effectiveness of Tysabri in patients with active MS that have switched from either Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd.'s Copaxone or Rebif, sold by Pfizer Inc. and Germany's Merck KGaA.

GlaxoSmithKline PLC are planning to abandon the traditional "white pill and Western markets" strategy, and are looking to make forays into the field of diseases for which it believes it can develop more valuable drugs.

GlaxoSmithKline has fasten its belt on the track of rival AstraZeneca by announcing thousands of job cuts when it updates on profits this week.

The giant, will announce plans on Thursday for further restructuring with the loss of 4,000 jobs out of its 99,000 global workforce, of which nearly half will be in GSK's research and development centres.

After slashing as many as 12,600 jobs since 2007, Anglo-Swedish drug-maker AstraZeneca now has plans to axe further 8,000 jobs worldwide by 2014 as a part of its cost-cutting drive.

AstraZeneca also warned that it might close some of R&D sites or facilities as part of its reorganization that aims to make savings of $1.8 billion over the approaching four years.

The drug-maker announced its plans to make further job cuts despite increase in profits.

In what would come as welcome news to patients suffering from Dupuytren's Contracture, Pfizer Inc. and Auxilium Pharmaceutical Inc. have announced that the scientific/technical review procedure of the drug Xiaflex (collagenase clostridium histolyticum) would begin January 21, 2010, following notification of the successful completion of the validation phase of the Market Authorization Application (MAA) for the drug, by European Medicines Agency.

Reports have confirmed that the US Justice Department has filed a formal complaint against Johnson & Johnson and as many as two of its subsidiaries, for allegedly paying over a million dollars in kickbacks to the largest nursing home pharmacy in the US, Omnicare.

Henri Termeer, the CEO of biotechnology firm Genzyme Corp, said that the firm would not make any new acquisition in 2010 as it would concentrate on finding solutions for its current problems.

64-year-old Termeer also said that it would not be practical to make any change in the leadership at the present time.

Mr. Termeer’s came at a time when a number of investors are demanding new leadership to get the firm back on its feet.

Confirmation has been received that the US Food and Drug Administration has approved a new class of drug for rheumatoid arthritis created by South San Francisco's Genentech.

Called Actemra, the medicine is the first arthritis treatment which would operate by blocking the activity of interleukin-6, a protein which, when overly abundant in the human body, leads to inflammation in the joints which is strongly linked to arthritis.

The drug was approved by the FDA on Friday.