Abbott Laboratories

> Microsoft has won a $36 million contract to upgrade Australia's e-health infrastructure and build a platform for the country's electronic medical record system. Article

> Guidant's first trial over one of its faulty defibrillators has been postponed. Article

> Johns Hopkins said it is removing …

Johnson & Johnson elected not to raise its bid for Giant, making Boston Scientific the winner of the bidding war over the device manufacturer. Giant officially accepted the $27.2 billion deal this morning. Under the terms of the agreement, Boston Scientific agreed to sell off Guidant's vascular intervention and endovascular business to Abbott Laboratories to address a potential regulatory roadblock to the deal. The deal must still be approved by regulators.

- see this …

Guidant's board declared a new $27 billion bid by Boston Scientific "superior." Johnson & Johnson has until January 24th to match the offer. As more details of the new deal emerged, it's clear that Abbott Laboratories is playing a larger role than previously believed. The company will contribute up to $6 billion in financing to support Boston Scientific's bid. Meanwhile, all the talk of medical devices is apparently exciting Wall Street and some analysts suspect that St. Jude may be …

Guidant shares surged this morning after Boston Scientific raised its bid for the company to $27 billion, or $80 per share, topping rival Johnson & Johnson's offer of $24.2 billion. The offer bests the competing bid by nearly $10 a share. Boston Scientific has given Guidant until 5 p.m. Eastern to accept or decline the offer. The development is the latest twist in high stakes poker game over the future of the cardiac rhythm management device company. As part of the proposal, Abbott …

Guidant accepted a $23.2 billion takeover offer from Johnson & Johnson, shocking analysts who had predicted that the company had lost the bidding war for the device maker. Guidant appeared to leave the door open for another offer from rival suitor Boston Scientific, however. Boston Scientific responded immediately, issuing a statement that concludes, "Our discussions with Guidant are ongoing. We intend to vigorously pursue this transaction to its completion." …

Despite the fact that many analysts see Medicare Part D as the biggest thing to happen to the pharmaceutical industry in years, pharma companies have been reluctant to talk about how much they stand to gain. Some even argue that in the end the benefit will end up hurting manufacturers more than it helps as customers move over to low-cost generics. Not many people buy that argument. Some analysts think the winners are likely to be companies like Sanofi-Aventis, Roche, Johnson & Johnson …

Abbott Laboratories said it will drop the price Brazil must pay for the AIDS drug Kaletra, ending an embarrassing standoff with the Brazilian government. Brazil had threatened to break the patent on Kaletra and two other drugs made by Merck and Gilead. The Brazilian government says the price adjustment will save it $259 million over the next 6 years. The move may, however, increase international pressure on Abbott to reach similar accommodations with other governments in countries where …

> The former head of the British Medical Journal says medical journals are "too close to drug companies." Story

> After an ambitious expansion in the mid-1990s, Sutter Health has gone on to become a major player. But things haven't worked out quite the way managers had hoped. …