Finished the chores? Curling up with a cup of coffee? Trying to relax? Then the time has come to catch up on events. Here are a few items to enjoy before you head off to pick some apples or talk a walk in the park…

Drugmakers often complain their good deeds go unnoticed, or worse. So Time magazine has run a piece about Merck’s efforts to provide HIV meds in Botswana. The drugmaker wins praise from the government and its partner, the Gates Foundation, although the mag doesn’t bother to ask one of the NGOs, or non-governmental organizations, for a quick comment.

Novartis ceo Dan Vasella, who has felt the sting of rejected drugs more than once lately, complains that the FDA has become politicized. “The FDA has become subject to politics. If they are assailed like they are now, the best thing to do is nothing,” he tells The Financial Times (subscription may be required). “The discussion on what this [drug] brings over and above what’s on the market is a question that’s being asked. The FDA doesn’t seem to trust the physicians any more.” And over in Australia, they don’t trust Novartis.

Another day, another drugmakers pays fines for fraud? Clearly, that’s an exaggeration. But Bristol-Myers Squibb did agree to fork over $515 million last week and sign a corporate integrity agreement. The American Prospect takes a look at the ongoing problem in the industry to avoid such problems amid growing whistleblower activity.

A court case brought by Nigeria against Pfizer resumes on Tuesday, Reuters reminds us. You may recall that Nigeria alleges the drugmaker deceived patients and their families, and caused the death of 11 children in 1996 when it performed clinical trials for Trovan. The northern state of Kano, it is suing the company for $8.5 billion, while Pfizer says it answered a call for help to save the lives of African children during a meningitis epidemic.

The fascination with China continues over at BusinessWeek, which examines manufacturing and intellectual property issues. The conclusion - India and everyone else is getting a run for their money. “If tomorrow the Chinese decide not to supply the world with raw materials, the pharma industry would collapse,” Yusuf Hamied, Cipla’s chairman, tells the mag.

And finally, FDA reviewers are recommending that OTC cough and cold meds that contain decongestants and antihistamines should come with new instructions and shouldn’t be given to very young children. The agency received 54 reports of deaths with decongestants and 69 with antihistamines from 1969 through 2006, mostly in kids younger than 2, Reuters writes. An FDA panel meets on Oct. 18 and 19. Meanwhile, four companies alerted docs to new warnings about side effects of gadolinium, which is used in imaging procedures, because it can raise the risk of a sometimes fatal disease that prompts excessive tissue to grow between internal organs, the Associated Press reports.

(Did we miss something interesting? Write in and tell us.)