In 2008, we booked exceptional items of € 400 million. This related primarily to impairments of intangible assets in the Merck Serono division: Due to sharply lower sales expectations for the psoriasis drug Raptiva®, production technology assets were written off in full. This resulted in an expense of € 195 million. Moreover, the licensing rights to Enbrel® for the treatment of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriasis were partially written down due to changes in the estimates of the associated royalty income and the timing thereof. This resulted in an expense of € 43 million. We completely wrote off the goodwill of € 42 million of our former subsidiary Lexigen subsequent to the termination of the relevant research projects. In 2008, we discontinued the development of a high-dose recombinant human growth hormone for HIV-associated adipose redistribution syndrome (HARS) and wrote off in full the intangible assets that had previously been capitalized at € 20 million in this connection.
We booked write-downs of € 29 million for financial assets due to lasting declines in share prices. The Merck Serono division incurred charges totaling € 26 million in connection with the restructuring of its sales force in various European countries.
The Chemicals business sector restructured the Performance & Life Science Chemicals division at its sites in the United States and Brazil. Merck recognized expenses of € 46 million as exceptional items in this connection.
In 2007, exceptional items related mainly to write-downs of inventories, which were remeasured within the scope of the Serono purchase price allocation.