We mentioned a report last week from the Digital Pharma Blog that Pfizer, Johnson & Johnson and Merck had each removed apps from the Apple AppStore in recent months. While many others covering this story attributed the move to a potential rethinking on the value of apps, the Digital Pharma Blog attributes many of the withdrawals to mergers the companies went through during the past two years: Merck with Schering-Plough and Pfizer with Wyeth.

In fact, the Digital Pharma Blog has aggregated some 65 smartphone apps created by pharma and biotech companies on its new Digital Pharma Links page, which can be found here. The page is a comprehensive looking list but it lacks details and screen grabs of the apps, so we put together a quick slide show to highlight ten of the apps created by some of the major pharma and biotech companies.

Pharma is clearly just beginning to embrace smartphone apps. They are not shying away from the platform:

Astella -- Get BladderFit

Astellas -- Get BladderFit: If you have trouble controlling your bladder movements, Get BladderFit is for you! Learn how to do pelvic floor exercises to improve your urinary function, and use the bladder training diary to monitor your progress. The app can be tailored to your condition and features. Free