ALSO NOTED: Medtronic launches first Asian JV; Pfizer ups dividend by 10%;

> Medtronic is buying a 15 percent stake in a Chinese medical-device maker for $221 million and launching its first Asian joint venture. Report

> Pfizer is boosting its quarterly dividend by 10% to 32 cents per share, just two months after reporting a 77 percent plunge in third-quarter profits. Report

> As part of its bid to raise cash, PDL BioPharma sold off its IV Busulfex cancer drug to Japan's Otsuka Pharmaceuticals for $200 million. Report

> China joined the list of countries that have suspended sales of aprotinin, a drug used to prevent blood loss during heart surgery; it's been linked with various adverse reactions. Some 20 manufacturers in China will be affected by the sales ban; it won't affect Bayer, whose aprotinin-containing Trasylol was suspended worldwide last month. Report

> Johnson & Johnson sold a device plant in New Bedford, MA, to Symmetry Medical, which makes orthopedic products, for $45 million; all 200 workers at the plant will keep their jobs. Report

> Pfizer's acquisition of Coley Pharmaceutical Group has cleared its antitrust review. Report

> The complex genetic machinery that manages our internal body clock is controlled by a single amino acid, which could prove to be one of the biggest new drug targets of the year. Report

> Several teams of scientists have been working away at creating new life forms from artificial DNA. Report

> Scientists at London's Imperial College have developed a patch made from embryonic stem cells to repair damaged hearts. Report

And Finally... We guess you could call this a business opportunity: Climate change is likely to make us all less healthy--and more in need of meds. Report