Pfizer, Inc., has suffered major setback during the fourth quarter ended December 2011 on account of lower sales of Lipitor in US by over 42 per cent. The net profit declined by 50.2 per cent to US$ 1,439 million from $2,890 million in the corresponding period of last year. Its revenues declined by 3.5 per cent to $16,7 billion from $17.4 billion as its worldwide The company cut down its R&D expenditure by 58.6 per cent to $460 million as against $1,111 million in the similar quarter of last year.

Lipitor sales declined by 24 per cent to $1,999 million in the fourth quarter from $2,629 million in the similar period of last year. Lipitor sales in US declined 42 per cent to $816 million from $1,408 million and and that in international market by 3.1 per cent to $1,183 million from $ 1,221 million.

The biopharmaceutical consisting of primary care, specialty care, emerging markets, established product and oncology, declined to $14,1 billion from $15.1 billion in the same quarter of last year. However, the sales of Animal Health, consumer healthcare and nutrition divisions moved up by 13 per cent, 8 per cent and 22 per cent respectively. Its US sales declined by 12 per cent to $6.3 billion, but international sales increased by 3 per cent to $10.4 billion. US revenues represented 38 per cent of total revenues in fourth quarter ended December 2011 compared with 41 per cent in the year-ago quarter.

Pfizer's revenue for the full year ended December 2011 increased only by 0.6 per cent to $67.4 billion from $67.1 billion in the previous year. Its US revenues declined by 6.9 per cent to $26.9 billion from 28.9 billion and international revenues moved up by 6 per cent to $40.5 billion from $ 38,2 billion. Its US revenues represented 40 per cent of total revenues in full year 2011 compared with 43 per cent in the last year. The company included the figures of King Pharmaceuticals Inc., for the the year 2011.

The total revenue of biopharmacmeutical declined by 1.4 per cent to $57,7 billion from $58.5 billion in the previous year. Primary care revenues declined by 2.6 per cent to $22.7 billion from $23.3 billion and that of specialty care moved up by 1.3 per cent to $15.2 billion from $15 billion. The worldwide sales of Lipitor declined by 11 per cent to $9,577 million from $10,733 million in the previous year. Lipitor sales in US declined by 6 per cent to $5,003 million from $5,329 million and that in International market declined by 15 per cent to $4,574 million from $5,404 million. The sales of Xalatan/Xalacom also declined by 29 per cent to $1,250 million and that of Norvasc declined by 4 per cent $1,445 million. Similarly, sales of Effexor declined by 61 per cent to $678 million from $1,718 million and that of Detrol/Detrol LA declined by 13 per cent to $883 million from $1,013 million.  

Its net profit for the full year ended December 2011 increased by 21 per cent to $10,009 million from $8,257 million in the previous year. The significant growth in profit is mainly due to sale of the Capsugel business during August 2011 for which it shown a gain of $1,304 million. The profit before this adjustment improved only by 6 per cent to $8,739 million from $ 8,211 million in the previous year. Its R&D expenditure declined by 8 per cent to$2,934 million from $3,201 million.

Ian Read, chairman and CEO, said, “Overall, 2011 was a year of setting new direction and focus for Pfizer. I am pleased with our 2011 financial performance, which was achieved in the face of a challenging global market and product losses of exclusivity of approximately $5 billion. We also made significant progress regarding capital allocation for the benefit of our shareholders during 2011.”

The company cut down its revenue projections for the full year 2012 between $60.5 to 62.5 billion from earlier projection of $62.2 to $64.7 billion. The EPS is now projected at $1.37 to $1.52 as compared to $1.58 to $1.73.