PROFIT GROWTH SLOWS AT BIG DRUGMAKERS.

Focuses on the slowdown in the second-quarter earnings in the core pharmaceutical businesses of big U.S. drug companies, due to patent expirations and product recalls. Better performance of European drug-makers compared to their U.S. counterparts; Comparison of the earnings of U.S. and European drug companies; Rise in the earnings of Wyeth Laboratories Inc. as well as Johnson & Johnson, while that of Pfizer and Merck & Co. Inc., plunged.