December 5, 2005 - December 11, 2005

December 5th:

Boston Scientific Corporation Proposes To Acquire Guidant Corporation

Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it is proposing to acquire all the outstanding shares of Guidant Corporation for a combination of cash and stock worth $72 per Guidant share. The proposed transaction is valued at approximately $25 billion, a premium of approximately $3 billion to the current valuation of the transaction between Johnson & Johnson and Guidant. Assuming that Boston Scientific and Guidant enter into an agreement by the year end, the proposed transaction might close in the first quarter of 2006.

Boston Scientific Announces Worldwide Recall of Stainless Steel Greenfield® Vena Cava Filters Manufactured Before March 10, 2004

Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it is voluntarily recalling all Stainless Steel Greenfield® Vena Cava Filters with 12Fr Femoral Introducer Systems manufactured before March 10, 2004.

This recall does not affect vena cava filters that have been implanted in patients. This recall includes only the Stainless Steel Greenfield® Vena Cava Filter with 12Fr Femoral Introducer Systems manufactured prior to March 10, 2004. All unused devices with a “use before date” prior to March 2007 are to be returned to Boston Scientific. The total number of devices involved in this recall is estimated at 18,000.

The Company is initiating this recall because of reports of detachment at the bond between the carrier capsule and the outer sheath of the filter’s delivery system during the implant procedure. If the carrier capsule should detach during an implantation procedure, there is a risk of cardiac and pulmonary embolization. Potential adverse events include serious patient injury or death.

December 6th:

Roper Industries Acquires Medtec

Roper Industries announced that it has acquired Medtec, Inc., of Orange City, Iowa for approximately $150 million in cash.

Medtec designs, develops, and distributes technologies essential for accurate diagnosis and treatment for cancer care. Medtec products include image-guided therapy software, patient positioning devices, and related products and accessories.

December 7th:

Johnson & Johnson Seen Walking Away From Guidant Corporation

Johnson & Johnson, facing a rival bid for Guidant Corp. from Boston Scientific, on Tuesday said it was committed to the transaction but failed to raise its offering price, signaling to many on Wall Street that it may walk away from the deal. J&J issued the statement a day after Boston Scientific Corp. made a surprise $25 billion offer for Guidant -- topping J&J's recently reduced price of $21.5 billion, which had been worked out with Guidant last month. J&J said its offer represents the "full and fair value" for Guidant, and that it expects Guidant shareholders to vote on its bid at a meeting expected to take place in the first quarter of 2006.

December 8th:

Boston Scientific Corporation Announces Worldwide Recall Of Flextome Cutting Balloon(R) Systems

Boston Scientific Corporation announced that it is voluntarily recalling all Flextome Cutting Balloon® Device Monorail® Delivery System and Peripheral Cutting Balloon® Microsurgical Dilatation Device Small Monorail® Delivery System. No other Boston Scientific Cutting Balloon products are affected by this recall.

The Company is initiating this recall because it has determined through complaints and testing that the distal shaft of the catheter may separate during withdrawal of the device. A shaft separation may prolong the procedure or require additional surgery. A total of eight complaints involving patients have been received by the Company, of which three required surgery. Today's action does not affect patients who have already received treatment with the recalled devices because the potential problem occurs during the procedure. The total number of devices involved in this recall is estimated at 40,000.

AstraZeneca And Protherics PLC Clinch $338 Million Drug Deal

Protherics, the biopharmaceutical company focused on critical care and oncology, today announces an agreement with AstraZeneca for the global development and commercialisation of Protherics' anti-sepsis product CytoFab(TM).

AstraZeneca will be responsible for developing CytoFab(TM), an anti-TNF-alpha polyclonal antibody fragment (Fab) product, as a treatment for TNF-alpha mediated diseases in man, with an initial target indication of severe sepsis. Sepsis is a life-threatening condition resulting from uncontrolled severe infections which affects an estimated three million people a year worldwide. Under the terms of the agreement, AstraZeneca will undertake all clinical development work (phase III to be launched) for CytoFab(TM) and Protherics will be primarily responsible for bulk drug manufacturing, including the supply of clinical trial material. The agreement will become effective upon the expiration of the Hart-Scott-Rodino waiting period in the US, which is anticipated early in 2006.

December 9th:

Medtronic, Inc. Provides Update on U.S. Obesity Trial; SHAPE Trial Does Not Meet Efficacy Endpoint

Medtronic, Inc. announced today that the preliminary results of the Screened Health Assessment and Pacer Evaluation, or SHAPE trial, did not meet the efficacy endpoint of a difference in mean excess weight loss at one year. The SHAPE trial is a U.S. multi-center, double-blind randomized controlled trial of Implantable Gastric Stimulation (IGS) for the management of obesity. This trial was designed to detect the difference in excess weight loss between patients who received IGS therapy and a placebo group who did not.

Merck in Fresh Trouble

Shares of Merck & Co. fell after the after the New England Journal of Medicine said authors of a study funded by Merck failed to disclose that three additional patients in a 2000 clinical study suffered heart attacks while using the now-withdrawn painkiller. The editorial, written by the journal's editor in chief, Dr. Jeffrey M. Drazen, executive editor Dr. Gregory D. Curfman and managing editor Stephen Morrissey, also alleges the study's authors deleted other relevant data before submitting their article for publication. "Taken together, these inaccuracies and deletions call into question the integrity of the data on adverse cardiovascular events in this article," the doctors wrote. Excluding the three heart attacks "made certain calculations and conclusions in the article incorrect."

The findings of what became known as the VIGOR study have been a key part of testimony in the three product liability trials to date over the withdrawn drug, including one in which a federal jury in Texas began deliberations Thursday afternoon. The research was published more than a year after the Food and Drug Administration approved Vioxx in May 1999. The study was intended to compare whether Vioxx caused more stomach ulcers and bleeding among patients with rheumatoid arthritis than for those using the older, cheaper anti-inflammatory naproxen. Over an average nine-month period, Vioxx did score better on that count, but the study also showed there were a greater number of heart attacks among Vioxx users. In the article, Merck explained differences found in that study by saying naproxen is cardioprotective.