Here is how major stock markets outside the United States ended on Wednesday.
The German company lost over 4 percent after it said it would stop giving uterine drug asoprisnil to patients in an extension to a late-stage trial due to adverse effects.
"This drug is close to dead," said Equinet analyst Martin Possienke. "It's difficult to believe that you can bring a drug to the market for benign tumours that causes complications needing invasive procedures." Other pharmaceutical stocks rose, however, after US company Pfizer won a patent battle, while GlaxoSmithKline had already been boosted by an upgrade from Dresdner Kleinwort Wasserstein to "add". The pan-European FTSEurofirst 300 index closed 0.7 percent lower at 1,204.3 points, further distancing itself from a 41-month high of 1,242.2 points struck last week.