Pfizer's "main chance" new anti-cholesterol drug torcetrapib may be delayed until 2011, clouding plans to replace Lipitor when its patent expires.
Regulators may want long-term studies showing the drug prolongs lives and prevents disease before approving it. The FDA has told Pfizer it wants studies showing whether the drug reduces the risk of heart attack or stroke.
Pfizer may lose as much as $25 billion in revenue by 2011, when patents expire on six top-selling drugs, analysts said.
"Pfizer's pipeline is barren beyond the torcetrapib opportunity, especially given the relative level of investment,'' Barbara Ryan, a Deutsche Bank analyst in Greenwich, Connecticut, wrote in a note Oct. 18 to clients.
Much more at Bloomberg
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