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Biotech / Medical : PFE (Pfizer) How high will it go? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brian Malloy who wrote (1532)	4/23/1998 5:25:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

More information on stock split and Viagra sales from a Bloomberg article: Pfizer to Spend More Than $2 Bln on R&D, Considers Stock Split Bloomberg April 23, 1998, 11:05 a.m. PT Pfizer to Spend More Than $2 Bln on R&D, Considers Stock Split New York, April 23 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc. said it will spend more than $2 billion on research and development in 1998 as it also invests to introduce new drugs to the U.S. market. New York-based Pfizer said it filed with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March for approval of a new heart drug. The drug, Tikosyn, treats atrial fibrillation, a condition that makes the heart beat irregularly. Pfizer's stock has more than doubled in the past year on prospects for its impotence pill, Viagra, introduced this month. Pfizer has overtaken Merck & Co. as the most valuable U.S. drug company, hitting an all-time high of 121 3/4 on Tuesday. Chairman and Chief Executive William Steere said Pfizer is considering a stock split, but it would require shareholder approval. ''The only question I get more often than 'When are we going to split the stock?' is 'Can I get a free sample of Viagra?','' Steere said at the annual shareholders' meeting in New York. Although Pfizer is interested in splitting its stock, the company doesn't have enough authorized shares and would need to call a special shareholders' meeting to do so before next year, he said. Pfizer fell 5/16 to 114 5/16 in midafternoon trading. Steere said the planned R&D spending is among the highest of any health-care company. Johnson & Johnson said today that it would spend $2.3 billion to $2.4 billion, including R&D in its medical device and consumer products divisions. Viagra Viagra is getting 15,000 to 20,000 prescriptions a day, according to NDC Health Information Services, a market-research company owned by National Data Corp. Another company that monitors prescriptions, IMS America Inc., said new Viagra prescriptions in the week April 10 totaled 36,263, up from 546 in the previous week, the first week for which prescriptions were reported. Viagra's early sales to wholesalers and drug stores ''were far greater than anticipated,'' Steere said. He said he will be interested to see how many men refill their prescriptions for Viagra, which works about 80 percent of the time. Pfizer said it won't release a Viagra sales figure before it reports second-quarter results. The FDA approval of Viagra last month put Pfizer into a market that previously was dominated mainly by injections and other less convenient therapies. Though the drug was expected to have annual sales possibly topping $1 billion, the amount of the sales have surprised analysts. Doctors say that at any one time, 10 percent of adult men suffer from impotence. Episodes increase with age, particularly in those with medical problems such as alcoholism, diabetes or high blood pressure. Other treatments for impotence include injectable drugs and vacuum devices fitted over the penis. Vivus Inc. sells a system called Muse that delivers an anti-impotence drug through the urethra. Unlike other impotence treatments, Viagra doesn't directly stimulate an erection. Instead, it enhances the effects of a chemical normally released in the body as a response to sexual stimulation, allowing increased blood flow into the penis. --Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016 and Jonas