ALSO NOTED: Medtronic earnings drop 89%; GSK buys back 2.7M shares;

> Medtronic's third-quarter earnings plummeted by 89 percent to $77 million because of charges on lawsuit settlements and acquisition costs, but even the adjusted profit beat Wall Street expectations. Report

> GlaxoSmithKline bought 2.7 million of its own shares as part of a stock buyback program authorized last May to boost value. Report

> AstraZeneca appointed Jean-Philippe Courtois, president of Microsoft International, as non-executive director. Report

> Ireland's Health Service Executive says it may buy drugs from international suppliers if domestic wholesalers don't absorb the cost of reduced profit margins instead of passing it along to pharmacies. Report

> Denmark's Pharmexa will cut 20 percent of its workforce after finding buyers for just 18.2 million of 69 million new shares of stock. Report

> Endo Pharmaceuticals and Penwest Pharmaceuticals say they will fight a generic version of their Opana ER pain drug planned by Actavis. Report

> Janssen Korea, a unit of Johnson & Johnson, says it plans to expand and modernize its plants in that country; this year it will spend more than $2 million on new equipment. Report

> Mistral Pharma won a deal to distribute six injectable generic drugs in Canada for an unidentified drug maker. Report

> Carl Icahn has cashed in his Genzyme chips and evidently gone looking for another game. Report

> FierceHealthcare asks: Would a new agency curb pharma marketing misdeeds? Editorial

And Finally... Living past 90 isn't rocket science: stop smoking, manage weight, control blood pressure, exercise regularly and avoid diabetes. Report