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

To: BigKNY3 who wrote (7453)	4/19/1999 10:52:00 AM
From: Little Gorilla	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 9523

Thursday April 15, 9:30 pm Eastern Time (I know this is old, but it's a simple article that puts things in perspective -- and I didn't see that it had been posted on this thread...) Pfizer medicine chest seen keeping profits healthy By Laney Salisbury NEW YORK, April 15 (Reuters) - Pfizer Inc.'s (NYSE:PFE - news) potent medicine chest of new and future drugs is expected to drive profits for years to come, although investors fled the drug maker's stock Thursday over concerns about near-term earnings. Shares plunged after the company reported an 18 percent gain in first quarter profits but cautioned that second quarter growth would be stuck in the single digits due to higher research and development costs and other factors. But Pfizer's fabled R&D engine can be counted on to sustain recent annual solid double-digit earnings gains into the years ahead, cranking out new treatments for key and lucrative markets such as cancer, osteoporosis and diabetes, analysts said. Pfizer's profits grew 26 percent in 1998, helped by anti-impotence pill Viagra, and the company has forecast at least 20 percent earnings growth this year. ''The company has perhaps the most impressive new product launch program in the drug industry for 1999 and extending out over the next 10 years,'' said industry analyst David Saks of Gruntal & Co. Pfizer's prescription drugs are forecast by some analysts to pull in almost $13 billion in global sales in 1999, up from $11.78 billion in 1998. Steadily increasing sales are expected to flow from Viagra and popular therapies it co-markets for other companies. They include cholesterol fighter Lipitor developed by Warner-Lambert Co (NYSE:WLA - news) and launched in early 1997, and Monsanto Co's (NYSE:MTC - news) arthritis pill Celebrex, introduced in January. Viagra, Lipitor and Celebrex are all among the fastest selling new drugs in history and poised to be among the 15 biggest drugs worldwide in 2002, according to British research house Evaluate Plc. ''The nature of this business is that the earnings impact of a new drug builds momentum through the first five to seven years,'' said Richard Stover, a drug analyst at Amhold & S. Bleichroeder. Stover said he sees global sales of Viagra totaling $1.5 billion in 1999. Celebrex and Lipitor are expected to have 1999 sales of $1.5 billion and $3.5 billion, respectively, a hefty but undisclosed percentage of which Pfizer keeps as its share. ''Pfizer's portfolio is broad with lots of momentum and very few patent expirations'' in coming years, Stover said. ''Pfizer is not looking at the kind of disruption that Merck is,'' he added, referring to Merck & Co's (NYSE:MRK - news) expiring U.S. patents on three of its currently best-selling drugs by 2001. Analysts said they expect Pfizer to launch three important new drugs by next year: Tikosyn to treat irregular heart rhythms, Relpax for migraine headaches and Alond for diabetes. The company is also conducting Phase III trials of another potential blockbuster -- inhalable insulin for diabetes. If approved it would revolutionize the treatment of diabetes by delivering the hormone through inhalers instead of injections. Pfizer has licensed the technology from Inhale Therapeutics Systems (Nasdaq:INHL - news) and plans to co-market the product with Hoechst AG (quote from Yahoo! UK & Ireland: HOEG.F) by late 2001. Pfizer shares closed at $129.25 on Thursday, down $15.3725, and off from Wednesday's open of $149.19.