Pfizer Inc has said that its broad and diverse pipeline of new medicines, together with an aggressive business development and licensing strategy, will drive a significant stream of new products for a wide variety of therapeutic areas starting in 2010.
"Our fundamental objective is to create a broad and very diversified stream of new products that will, year after year, drive Pfizer's growth and the value of our shareholders' investment," said Jeffrey B. Kindler, Pfizer's chief executive officer. "We are developing new products for a broad cross-section of therapeutic and specialty areas with strong growth potential. The depth of our mid-stage pipeline gives us confidence that we can generate a steady stream of new products that will address significant unmet medical needs."
At today's meeting, Pfizer will review the largest pipeline in the company's history. It now has more candidates, more trials, and more programs than it has ever had, a total of 242 programmes spanning 11 therapeutic areas. Pfizer scientists will describe 30 programmes, with more than half being discussed for the first time at this meeting.
Dr John LaMattina, president of Pfizer global research and development, said, "We have momentum, very aggressive targets and breakthrough science virtually across the board. We have important research programs underway in atherosclerosis, oncology, diabetes, obesity, rheumatoid arthritis, HIV, schizophrenia, liver disease and Alzheimer's among others. I firmly believe that our outstanding progress is directly related to changes we have made in how we work to streamline and improve productivity. As a result, the company's portfolio of new molecular entities has almost tripled since the beginning of the decade.
"We now expect that our phase 3 portfolio will grow dramatically and may even triple from 2006 to 2009. This will give us a steady stream of new and important products from our internal development pipeline. We are targeting four a year - starting in 2011." Areas of concentration include: A cardiovascular, metabolic and endocrine disease portfolio whose five main areas of focus - atherosclerosis, obesity, diabetes, bone and muscle health, and thrombosis - cover markets that are over $100 billion in total. Pfizer is building on its traditional strengths in cardiovascular research and is expanding in metabolic and endocrine diseases. Candidates in late stage development include CP-945,598, a potential new treatment for obesity now in phase III studies.
The company expects the new strategy to contribute two new externally sourced products per year starting in 2010. These new products are expected to be significant contributors to Pfizer's future revenue growth.
Pfizer is experiencing a favorable trend in revenues and lower costs in the fourth quarter than it previously expected. The company now expects 2006 revenues to be slightly higher and costs to be slightly lower. Pfizer is now projecting adjusted diluted EPS(1) for 2006 to be at least $2.05 per share compared to its previous estimate of about $2.00 per share.