A rainy day here in the nation’s medicine chest. That can only mean one thing - less time for a stroll outdoors and, so, still more time to be spent finding interesting items. Merck’s earnings will be released, for instance, which means more opportunity to hear about Vytorin. So grab the coffee or tea….

Allergan, best known for Botox, will close a plant in Ireland, eliminating 300 jobs, and transfer production to a factory in Costa Rica. The move probably will cost as much as $65 million through 2009, but the closing “has been made necessary by the high level of investment required to maintain competitiveness” at the location, Bloomberg News writes.

Pfizer’s new HIV drug, Selzentry, will soon be reformulated in an effort to prevent the transmission of the virus, The Wall Street Journal reports. The drugmaker is expected to announce today that it will license the med to a nonprofit that investigates ways to turn HIV drugs for infected patients into vaginal substances to prevent transmission to women during sex. The partnership offers a low-risk way for Pfizer to find out if the medicine could become a frequently taken drug, while potentially offering an empowering concept to women in the developing world.

Wyeth and union negotiators have reached a tentative agreement on a new contract for about 900 workers employed at the drugmaker’s Pearl River, NY, plant. This is the second time the parties reached agreement on a new pact. Workers rejected the first deal on Jan. 16, the same day their previous six-year contract expired, The Journal-News reports.