October 17, 2005. Serono agreed to pay $700 million to settle kickback charges brought by Massachusetts and the US; St Jude Medical will pay $1.3 billion to buy Advanced Neuromodulation Systems, a maker of implantable devices for pain and nervous system disorders; Alpharma sold off its generics business for $810 million; Altus Pharma filed for a $115 million IPO; Abbott Labs received an official thumbs-down from the FDA for Xinlay, a prostate cancer drug; Biogen Idec and Elan confirmed that no new cases of PML have shown up among Tysabri users; and Lilly says its antiplatelet drug was more effective than Plavix. At the closing bell, the Centient Biotech 200™ was off 8.5 points at 3657.36, a loss of .23%.
