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Chances have been good that Sanofi-Aventis and Merck would re-establish their animal-health joint venture, as company officials have been more than hinting for months. Today, the reunion plans became official.

The combined business would be the largest seller of animal drugs and vaccines in the world, the companies said, although the deal still will have to pass muster with antitrust watchdogs. Here’s more from Dow Jones Newswires and Reuters.

All is not well in the land of insulin pumps — the devices that deliver insulin to mostly Type 1 diabetics — and the FDA wants to put a spotlight on the problem.

In what could be a win-win decision for both Teva Pharmaceutical and Merck, a federal court said that Teva was entitled to six months of exclusivity to sell generic versions of two hypertension medicines made by Merck.

Roche’s Avastin chalked up another miss in a study, this time failing to meet its main target of prolonging the lives of patients with late-stage stomach cancer in combination with chemotherapy.

Safety experts advising the FDA have been sending up flares about various asthma drugs for several years. In 2007, a panel said GlaxoSmithKline’s Serevent and Advair should carry a warning about risks to children. In 2008, experts said Serevent and Norvartis’s Foradil shouldn’t be used for asthma any more.

With an apparent eye on Pfizer’s experience early this month, Merck officials made one thing abundantly clear during the morning’s earnings report: “Nothing in our guidance has changed,” CFO Peter Kellogg said on a conference call with analysts.

Proxy season! Time, once again, to learn how much the captains of industry are pulling down.

First up for the Health Blog this year is Eli Lilly, which just filed its preliminary proxy.

John Lechleiter, the company’s CEO, had a package totaling $16.4 million, according to an analysis by Dow Jones Newswires. That includes $1.48 million in salary, $3.55 million in non-equity incentive plan compensation, $11.25 million in certain equity awards and $90,091 from a savings-plan match and tax reimbursements.

Cell Therapeutics’ experimental lymphoma drug pixantrone faces rough sledding from an FDA advisory committee after an agency staff review raised questions about the drug’s effectiveness and side effects. The news sent the company’s shares sharply lower.

GlaxoSmithKline is going to cut R&D and other expenses as part of an effort to lower costs. The company wouldn’t specify how many jobs will be lost.

But CEO Andrew Witty said that the figure in the U.K., where Glaxo is based, would likely be in the hundreds, Dow Jones Newswires reports.

The Times of London and the Financial Times reported a few days back that GSK was planning to cut 3,000 to 4,000 jobs.

Pfizer spent $2.8 billion on R&D in the fourth quarter of last year, according to today’s earnings announcement from the company. But R&D spending is about to fall pretty sharply, according to estimates from the company.

This is no surprise — the big spending in the fourth quarter was largely the result of the company’s acquisition of Wyeth, which closed on Oct. 15, and Pfizer has said cuts are on the way.