And so the weekend is here, which is a good thing. Time to rest and reflect. Maybe catch up on some reading and, in our case, hang out with the short people. Meanwhile, we managed to come across a few items that we didn’t get to yesterday or popped up this morning. We hope these keep you feeling up-to-date as you go about the day. Whatever you do, enjoy. And catch you later…

Genentech’s Herceptin and Glaxo’s Tykerb will compete in the first head-to-head clinical trial to see which drug is more effective for breast cancer patients with a particular gene mutation. About 8,000 people in 50 countries will be given either one of the drugs or a combination of both in a trial dubbed ALTTO. The $100 million study, scheduled to end in 2011, is sponsored by the National Cancer Institute, Bloomberg News writes.

Ivan Seidenberg resigned as a director of Wyeth, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. Seidenberg’s resignation from the board didn’t involve any disagreement on any matter relating to operations, policies or practices, Wyeth says, without disclosing the reason for his resignation.

Pfizer is restating its fourth-quarter earnings to reduce revenue by $195 million and earnings per share by 2 cents, Bloomberg News reports. The drugmaker is making the restatement because it underestimated the amount it would have to pay in rebates to the U.S. government’s Medicare and Medicaid programs, Pfizer said today in a regulatory filing. The new numbers mean Pfizer’s revenue increased 2 percent in the fourth quarter, rather than the 3.7 percent increase as previously reported.

Glaxo is withdrawing its Lapdap malaria drug from the market and stopping development of a second experimental compound, Dacart, following adverse side effects seen in clinical trials, Reuters writes. The drugmaker says some patients taking the medicines had experienced reductions in haemoglobin levels, which can lead to serious anaemia. Kenya is the only market where Lapdap has recently been sold

Sepracor posted a fourth-quarter loss on Friday, hurt by a payment for a licensing deal and lower revenue for its Xopenex asthma inhaler, and forecast 2008 profit below analyst expectations, sending shares to a more than four-year low. While revenue projections appeared to be in line with analyst expectations, the drugmaker forecast higher spending, particularly for R&D, that will cut into profits. “Their guidance…is what I think people found disappointing,” Natixis Bleichroeder analyst Jon LeCroy told Reuters. “Their costs are expected to increase dramatically.”

The UK is poised to scrap the pricing mechanism for prescription medicines, setting a Sept. 1 deadline to strike a new deal with drugmakers, The Financial Times reports. The Department of Health will write a letter to the Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry trade group that it is giving notice on the mechanism. The government indicated plans in August to renegotiate the Pharmaceutical Price Regulation Scheme (PPRS), covering the price paid by the state health service for branded medicines, in a bid to save money.