Valeant Pharmaceuticals International and Turing Pharmaceuticals are the focus of two probes in Congress seeking to examine why the companies raised the prices of medications sharply after acquiring them.

Endo International, the Dublin-based maker of pain drugs like Opana and Percocet, has agreed to buy Par Pharmaceuticals for $8.05bn (€7.09bn) in cash and stock as part of a plan to ignite sales growth and pursue more acquisitions.

Actavis plc agreed to pay about $66bn (€53bn) for Allergan, a deal that creates a new top 10 drugmaker and ends Valeant Pharmaceuticals International’s attempt at a hostile takeover of the maker of Botox.

Allergan is not in active talks to acquire Salix Pharmaceuticals, people with knowledge of the matter said, though the drugmakers have discussed a deal.

Employees at pharmaceutical giant Bausch + Lomb have begun voting on a cutbacks "deal" which could decide if the plant will remain open into the future.

A US senator has been criticised for encouraging the CEO of Bausch + Lomb’s parent company to move the 1,100-plus Waterford-based jobs to New York.

Staff at Bausch + Lomb are facing average cuts of €6,000 to their basic pay under the cost-cutting plan announced by the company.

The very sobering suggestion, if that is all it really was, from IDA chief executive Barry O’Leary yesterday that workers at the Bausch + Lomb plant in Waterford have little option but to carefully consider the take-it-or-leave-it ultimatum put to them this week by the company’s new owners must send another shiver down the spines of the 161,000 workers employed by foreign firms.