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

To: Anthony Wong who wrote (6756)	1/20/1999 7:28:00 PM
From: BigKNY3	Respond to of 9523

Pfizer Canada introduces antibiotic for pneumonia: All-out success predicted John Greenwood 01/20/99 National Post National Page C09 Pfizer Canada Inc. announced the Canadian introduction yesterday of its new treatment for pneumonia, Trovan, a drug analysts predict could be the most successful in its class. Pneumonia is a potentially fatal lung infection that causes about 7,000 deaths in this country every year and affects about 360,000 people, most of them over 60. "In serious infections like pneumonia, it is extremely difficult to determine the bacteria causing the infection," said Dr. Donald Low, a professor in the department of medicine and medical microbiology at the University of Toronto. "Trovan is an exciting advance because it allows us to use one antibiotic to cover the likely pathogens, including the increasing number of bacteria that have become resistant to traditional antibiotics." Trovan, which is owned by Pfizer Canada's U.S. parent, Pfizer Inc., won approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration for a record 14 different types of infection. "It's on its way to becoming the most successful launch of an antibiotic drug ever, said Steven Tighe, an analyst at Merrill Lynch Global Securities. Observers are predicting worldwide 1999 sales of about $440-million (all figures in U.S. dollars). Mr. Tighe said the launch is only part of a brighter picture at Pfizer Inc., which reported positive results yesterday for the fourth quarter of 1998. Pfizer posted revenue of $3.9-billion, up 26% from the previous year. The company sold $236-million of the Viagra medication for the quarter. For the year, Viagra had sales of $788-million. So far, 200,000 doctors in the United States have written more than seven million prescriptions for three million patients. Viagra , which has yet to be approved by Health Canada, has been given the green light for marketing in 40 countries. Said Mr. Tighe: "Pfizer's results for the quarter were extremely broad based, revenues at nearly every division are up." He attributed the good results to drugs like Norvasc, Pfizer's hypertension drug, Zoloft, its treatment for depression, its antibiotic Trovan, which got U.S. approved in February, 1998, as well as Viagra .