UPDATE 1-Pfizer says new drugs to top Wall Street estimates
Tue May 2, 2006 1:33 PM ET
(Adds further Pfizer comments, analyst comment, share price)
By Toni Clarke
BOSTON, May 2 (Reuters) - Wall Street peak sales estimates for Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) recently launched and soon to be introduced drugs are $2 billion shy of the company's own expectations, Pfizer Vice Chairman David Shedlarz said on Tuesday.
"Our portfolio has huge potential and we believe the marketplace is being conservative in valuing those products," Shedlarz said at the Deutsche Bank Healthcare Conference in Boston, after which Pfizer shares rose 1 percent.
Shedlarz said anticipated losses from generic competition will be offset by the 10 new products he was referring to, including several which the company expects to launch this year.
"What you've got to think about is the portfolio, and what is not getting play is how well these product lines are doing," he said of recently launched drugs such as the anti-seizure medicine Lyrica and Geodon for schizophrenia.
Pfizer recently estimated Lyrica sales topping $900 million this year.
"At the end of the day, they have a forecast and the Street has a forecast and companies often think that their pipelines are underappreciated by the Street," said Deutsche Bank analyst Barbara Ryan.
"The market is much more focused on their existing portfolio than the pipeline," she added.
Executives of the world's largest drugmaker said the company would be aggressive in tackling the threat to its top-selling cholesterol fighter Lipitor from generic versions of Merck & Co.'s (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) Zocor, which will lose patent protection next month.
"Whether we can continue at the same robust rate is a question, but to assume that Lipitor will fall off a cliff is unrealistic," Shedlarz said of the world's top-selling prescription drug with sales of about $13 billion a year.
Pat Kelly, president of U.S. pharmaceuticals at Pfizer, said the company would be making the argument to managed care companies that transferring patients from Lipitor to generic Zocor would ultimately prove more costly. He said savings in drug costs would be more than offset by hospital bills, suggesting that Lipitor is more effective at preventing adverse heart events than its Merck rival.
Kelly also said Pfizer would do what it can to ensure that no patient is forced to stop taking Lipitor because a managed care company or pharmacy benefits manager removes Lipitor from its list of preferred prescription medicines, as Express Scripts (ESRX.O: Quote, Profile, Research) did last year in anticipation of the 2006 introduction of generic Zocor.
Kelly declined to to give details of how that strategy might work.
When Pfizer launches its new inhaled insulin drug Exubera and the sleep disorder drug Indiplon, Shedlarz said each will be supported by several thousand sales representatives and marketing people. The company said it will refrain from direct to consumer advertising of the drugs for the first six months after launch.
Link: yahoo.reuters.com |
