Abbott shareholders nix 'say-on-pay'; Wyeth gets Euro nod for bone med;

> Abbott shareholders voted down a proposal calling for a non-binding vote on executive compensation. The company had opposed the measure; the owners of 40% of the company's shares voted in favor. Report

> Wyeth Pharmaceuticals won European Commission approval for Conbrizatm (bazedoxifene), a selective estrogen receptor modulator, for the treatment of postmenopausal osteoporosis in women at increased risk of fracture. Release

> The FDA approved a potential Johnson & Johnson blockbuster--Simponi, essentially a follow-up to Remicade--that fights three forms of arthritis caused by immune-system disorders. Report

> Several pharmacies, drugmakers and wholesalers in Ontario are facing criminal charges and $34 million in fines in an alleged scheme that saw them profit from reselling generic prescription drugs, officials said. Report

> Health products firm Omega Pharma agreed with an Indian pharmaceutical group to create a joint venture on the subcontinent that should make sales of $2.6 million in 2010. Report

> Canadian eye care company QLT reported a $1.3 million first-quarter profit, reversing a year-ago loss of $10.5 million as a 23.9 percent drop in Visudyne sales was offset by improved revenue and higher profit shares. Report

> Citing an unexpectedly high placebo response, XenoPort and GlaxoSmithKline reported this morning that their experimental therapy to treat numbness in diabetes patients failed a mid-stage trial. Report

> Novartis and Merck KGaA are leading a group of developers who are advancing a new generation of therapies for multiple sclerosis. The National Multiple Sclerosis Society says it is tracking five new pills and two infusion therapies that could be approved by 2014. Report

> Scientists are racing to gain a better understanding of the A/H1N1 strain of swine flu that has triggered an epidemic in Mexico and a public health emergency in the United States. Report

> The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine has one of the largest public drug libraries in the world. And the stockpile of more than 3,000 drugs has proven a fertile field for researchers exploring new uses for old compounds. Article

> Scientists say they have cracked the genetic code of the new A/H1N1 flu virus that broke out in Mexico and has rapidly circumvented the globe. The new virus is the result of a genetic reassortment, where different viruses have mixed and created a new strain. Report

And Finally... GlaxoSmithKline's Tykerb may offer an option for inflammatory breast cancer when other treatments have failed, researchers said. Report