Our review of top stories of 2006 touches on a variety of subjects, but the majority drive to one über-theme: the pipeline challenge. Products suddenly disappeared into the generic abyss, with nothing new to take their places. Compounds likely to succeed didn't. The price of in-licensable products soared. Even relatively good news for pipelines largely reflected the absence of further bad news: the safety squabbles did not result in higher hurdles to product approvals.

Abbott Laboratories' Norvir (ritonavir) set a record early in March: the FDA reviewed and approved the protease inhibitor for use alone or in combination therapy as a treatment for late-stage AIDS just 72 days after filing.

Officials from the US Food and Drug Administration cited their reasons for refusing to review new applications for companies with unresolved data integrity failures.