Walter Armstrong, Senior Editor

A novel joint venture between Glaxo and Pfizer is big on promise. But the combined portfolio and pipeline of HIV drugs? Not so much.

The morning's other big M&A news comes out of the Bay Area biotech industry, where Gilead Sciences announced that will purchase CV Therapeutics for $1.4 billion.

Badly wounded by mounting fears of its safety profile and plunging prescriptions, Pfizer?s novel smoking-cessation drug that promised blockbuster sales is now fighting for its life?with a no-holds-barred ad and PR campaign.

MedTrust Online is pitching customized Web sites linking primary-care physicians to one another, oncology specialists, and a trove of medical content has grabbed a lot of press. Can it fly?

It's that time of year again, when Santas everywhere take stock of nice and naughty in order to fill stockings-and magazines make up their lists of hits and has-beens.