Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (5654)	9/22/1998 1:18:00 PM
From: BigKNY3	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Pfizer, Schering-Plough shares gain NEW YORK, Sept 22 (Reuters) - Shares of Pfizer Inc. <PFE.N> jumped Tuesday on bargain hunting while Schering-Plough Corp. <SGP.N> gained on the company's start of Phase III trials of a new formulation of its Claritin antihistamine, analysts said. Pfizer, the New York drug giant best known for its Viagra anti-impotence pill, was up two to 99-5/8 in afternoon trade. Schering-Plough, based in Madison, N.J., was up 2-7/16 to 99-3/4. "When the price of Pfizer dips near $100, it has a tendency to just bounce back because a lot of people put in their buy orders at that point," Sweig said. Sweig said Pfizer shares remained over 20 percent off their all-time intraday high of $121-3/4 set on April 17, two weeks after Viagra was launched in the United States amid a blazing media spotlight. "Bargain hunting is going on and for good reason," Sweig said, predicting Pfizer would boast per-share earnings growth of 23 percent to 24 percent in both 1998 and 1999. Pfizer traded as high as $118 in mid-July but went into a sharp decline with the broad U.S. market in subsequent weeks amid concerns over economic turmoil in Russia and Asia. Gruntal & Co. drug analyst David Saks said Pfizer has also been hurt by continuing publicity about scores of deaths among millions of people who have taken Viagra, many of them elderly people with cardiovascular problems. But Pfizer has defended the safety of the drug, saying the number of deaths was not surprising given the advanced age and numbers of people taking the world's first anti-impotence pill. Saks said the number of U.S. Viagra prescriptions is rising again after a steady two-month decline. And he said overall sales could only be helped by the European Union's approval of the pill on September 15. Another bright spot in Pfizer's future, he said, was the expected launch by early 1999 of Celebra, the first member of a promising new class of painkillers that work by inhibiting the so-called Cox-2 enzyme. Pfizer has been tapped to co-promote Celebra for Monsanto Co. <MTC.N>, the St. Louis company which developed the drug and which is waiting to consummate its merger with American Home Products Corp. <AHP.N>. Saks said Schering-Plough was helped Tuesday by delayed enthusiasm over an announcement Monday that the company had begun late-stage clinical trials of the antihistamine drug desloratadine months ahead of expectations. Schering-Plough has licensed worldwide rights to the drug from Sepracor Inc. <SEPR.O>. It is a chemically changed, or metabolite form, of Claritin. Saks said the newer drug, if eventually approved, is expected to have fewer side effects than Claritin. Moreover, he said it would enjoy U.S. patent protection to the year 2014 -- 10 years beyond the 2004 expiration of Claritin's U.S. patent.