Healthcare Business Review: Life Insurers Face NEW Regs, Pfizer Reaches DEAL With AstraZeneca

Here are Monday’s top stories:

Life insurers such as Prudential Financial, Inc. (NYSE:PRU), MetLife, Inc. (NYSE:MET), and Manulife Financial Corporation’s (NYSE:MFC) John Hancock, are in discussions with, or have settled with states that now require that they constantly check their client listings against a death database and then find the beneficiaries. Some states calculate that firms have failed to pay more than $1 billion over the decades.

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Pfizer Inc. (NYSE:PFE) reaches an arrangement with AstraZeneca Group plc (NYSE:AZN) for the over-the-counter rights to Nexium. As a result, the former reduces its guidance for fiscal year 2012 earnings per share, as it now forecasts a range between $2.12 an $2.22, compared to prior estimates of $2.14 to $2.24. In addition, research and development expenditures are now forecast between $6.75 billion and $7.25 billion, which range is higher than the previous $6.5 billion to $7 billion estimate.

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