PFE announced that they would buy back $5B of stock by the end of 05 just as they did in 04.
As to a reason for the pfe step back today:
UPDATE 3-Merck, Schering-Plough drug beats Lipitor in trial
Thu Oct 28, 2004 04:25 PM ET
(Adds Pfizer comment, closing share prices)
By Ransdell Pierson
NEW YORK, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Merck & Co. (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) and Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP.N: Quote, Profile, Research) on Thursday said their recently launched Vytorin pill controlled cholesterol better than Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) popular Lipitor in a large trial.
The drugmakers said patients taking the standard starting dose of Vytorin saw their level of "bad" LDL cholesterol cut 51 percent, compared with a reduction of 36 percent for those taking the most commonly used 10 milligram starting dosage of Lipitor.
The six-week trial involved 1,902 patients with high cholesterol levels.
Among patients in the trial who had heart disease or were at high risk of it, 82 percent taking the standard starting dose of Vytorin were able to get their LDL cholesterol down to the target range of below 100, the companies said.
That compared with only 47 percent of those taking the 10 milligram dose of Lipitor.
Pfizer spokeswoman Vanessa Aristide declined to comment on the trial. But she said Lipitor, which was introduced in 1997, has consistently proven highly effective for most patients.
"Ninety-eight percent of people taking starting doses of Lipitor reach their target cholesterol levels," Aristide said.
Merck and Schering-Plough in 2002 launched a pill called Zetia (ezetimibe), the first medicine that blocks absorption of cholesterol by the intestines. It is used either by itself, or with any member of the "statin" family of cholesterol treatments that include Lipitor and Merck's widely used Zocor.
Their second joint product, Vytorin, was approved in July. It combines Zetia in the same pill with Zocor, which, like all statins, works by inhibiting the liver's production of cholesterol.
Merck and Schering-Plough on Thursday said their new study also compared effectiveness of stronger doses of Vytorin and Lipitor in treating high-risk patients -- specifically, Vytorin pills that combined 10 milligrams of ezetimibe with 40 milligrams of Zocor and Lipitor at 40 milligrams.
At those mid-range doses, Vytorin cut LDL cholesterol by 59 percent in the high-risk group, compared to 48 percent for Lipitor, the companies said.
Recent clinical trials have shown that high-risk patients have significantly fewer heart attacks if they can drive their LDL levels below 70, far lower than target levels of past years.
About 57 percent of high-risk patients taking the mid-range dose of Vytorin got their LDL levels to below 70 in the new trial, compared with only 23 percent taking the 40 milligram dose of Lipitor, Merck and Schering-Plough said.
Together, Zetia and Vytorin had global sales of $344 million in the third quarter. Some Wall Street analysts expect them to eventually post combined annual sales of over $8 billion, and to thereby help revive earnings growth for both struggling drugmakers.
Lipitor, with global annual sales of about $10 billion, has become the world's top-selling medicine because of its potency against cholesterol and its long safety record. But Wall Street expects Vytorin, with its apparently greater potency, to pose increasingly stiff competition to Pfizer's flagship product.
Merck and Schering-Plough both closed up about 1 percent, while Pfizer slipped 1 percent, all on the New York Stock Exchange. |
