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

To: Jerry Olson who wrote (2256)	5/8/1998 4:15:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Jerry, what does today's volume say? My net broker quote's volume seems to be diffferent from that shown on Yahoo! quote, so I don't know whether it is above the average daily volume.

To: Jerry Olson who wrote (2256)	5/8/1998 4:22:00 PM
From: Anthony Wong	Respond to of 9523

Newswire - Pfizer's Viagra Gets 600,000 Prescriptions in April Bloomberg News May 8, 1998, 12:15 p.m. PT Pfizer's Viagra Gets 600,000 Prescriptions in April New York, May 8 (Bloomberg) -- Pfizer Inc.'s Viagra had almost 600,000 prescriptions filled in April, its first month on the market, leading some analysts to predict sales of the impotence pill could rise as high as $2 billion in 1999. About 250,000 prescriptions were filled for Viagra in the week ended May 1, a 20 percent gain over the previous week, according to NDC Health Information Services, which tracks sales at pharmacies. Viagra's first-month sales were unprecedented, NDC said. Pfizer's stock has more than doubled in the past year on prospects for Viagra, a pill competing with less convenient impotence treatments. Better-than-expected early Viagra sales let Pfizer overtake rival Merck & Co. last month as the most valuable U.S. drug company. It reached an all-time high of 121 3/4 on April 21. ''Obviously, the first quarter (of Viagra sales) is going to be phenomenal,'' said Alex Zisson, an analyst with Hambrecht & Quist. ''The question is what the second quarter will be.'' Pfizer rose 3 11/16 to 110 9/16 in late trading. Although some men need Viagra for medical reasons, other will try it for recreational ones, he said. These man may be more likely to drop Viagra after a few uses, said Zisson, who has a ''buy'' rating on Pfizer. It's too early to tell what the 1998 sales for Viagra will be, he said. ''Right now, we're all just guessing,'' said Jami Rubin, an analyst with Schroder & Co. Although she has surveyed urologists and others who work with impotent men, it is too early to tell if Viagra prescriptions will continue to rise as they have, she said. European sales of Viagra are expected to start in late 1998. Rubin said she estimates 1999 Viagra sales at about $1.2 billion to $1.3 billion, although sales could reach as high as $2 billion. ''Its doable, but it's an optimistic estimate,'' she said. Pfizer sell Viagra for about $7 a pill to wholesalers and prescriptions often are written for about 11 pills. If Viagra prescriptions continued at their current rate, the drug would bring Pfizer about $80 million a month, or $1 billion in the first year. The top-selling prescription drug in the U.S. is Prilosec, an ulcer drug sold by a joint venture of Astra AB and Merck & Co., NDC said. Prilosec had $215 million in February sales. Eli Lilly & Co.'s antidepressant Prozac had $185 million, Merck & Co.'s cholesterol reducer Zocor $122 million. The 10th-biggest seller, Abbott Laboratories' antibiotic Biaxin had $79 million in February sales, NDC said. --Kerry Dooley in the Princeton newsroom (609) 279-4016/dd