Bextra.

See Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements–Note 19B. Legal Proceedings and Contingencies: Product Litigation for a discussion of recent developments with respect to litigation related to Celebrex and Bextra.

O Adjustment of Prior Years’ Liabilities for Product Returns

Revenues in 2008 include a reduction of $217 million, pre-tax, to adjust our prior years' liabilities for product returns. After a detailed review in 2008 of our returns experience, we determined that our previous accounting methodology for product returns needed to be revised, as the lag time between product sale and return was actually longer than we had previously assumed. Although fully recorded in the third quarter of 2008, virtually all of the adjustment relates back several years. We have also reviewed our expense calculations for the prior years and determined that the expense recorded in those years was not materially different from what would have been recorded under our revised approach.

O Exubera

In the third quarter of 2007, we exited Exubera, an inhalable form of insulin for the treatment of diabetes. Total pre-tax charges in 2007 were $2.8 billion and were included primarily in Cost of sales ($2.6 billion), Selling, informational and administrative expenses ($85 million), and Research and development expenses ($100 million). The charges comprised asset write-offs of $2.2 billion (intangibles, inventory and fixed assets) and other exit costs, primarily severance, contract and other termination costs. As of December 31, 2008, the remaining accrual for other exit costs is approximately $152 million. Substantially all of this cash spending is expected to be completed in 2009. See Notes to Consolidated Financial Statements—Note 4D. Certain Charges: Exubera.

• Acquisitions—We completed a number of strategic acquisitions that we believe will strengthen and broaden our existing pharmaceutical capabilities. In 2008, we acquired Serenex Inc. (Serenex), a privately held biotechnology company with SNX-5422 and an extensive Hsp90 inhibitor compound library; Encysive Pharmaceuticals Inc. (Encysive), a biopharmaceutical company with the pulmonary arterial hypertension product, Thelin; CovX, a privately held biotherapeutics company specializing in preclinical oncology and metabolic research; Coley Pharmaceuticals, Inc. (Coley), a biopharmaceutical company specializing in vaccines and drug candidates designed to fight cancers, allergy and asthma disorders, and autoimmune diseases; a number of animal health product lines in Europe from Schering-Plough Corporation (Schering-Plough); and two smaller acquisitions also related to Animal Health. (See further discussion in the “Our Strategic Initiatives—Strategy and Recent Transactions: Acquisitions, Licensing and Collaborations” section of this Financial Review.)

• Cost-reduction initiatives—We made significant progress with our cost-reduction and transformation initiatives, launched in early 2005, which are a broad-based, company-wide effort to improve performance and efficiency. In 2008, we exceeded our cost-reduction goal by reducing adjusted total costs by $2.8 billion, compared to 2006, on a constant currency