Pfizer, heal thyself
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Pfizer, heal thyself
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SCOTT JAGOW: Wall Street’s biggest drug company turned in a fat profit report this morning, but Pfizer made a lot of its money last quarter by selling one of its units. When you take that out, the company’s profits were down, sales were flat. Pfizer just lost patent protection for the anti-depressant Zoloft. As Hillary Wicai reports, many Pfizer employees could lose their jobs.
HILLARY WICAI: Pfizer’s chief executive will reportedly prescribe his drug company a healthy dose of belt tightening. It’s an attempt to stave off a case of the patent-expiring flu.
The Times of London is reporting this morning that Jeffrey Kindler is expected to unveil plans to shed up to 10,000 jobs globally.
Princeton Healthcare economist Uwe Reinhard says Pfizer’s patents on mega-moneymakers like Lipitor are set to expire and it has almost nothing to replace it.
UWE REINHARD: Kindler is trying to squeeze $2 billion out of the system through these job cuts and that’ll give him the cash to make an acquisition of another company that has something in the pipeline that could replace Lipitor.
In other news, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation is expected to file a lawsuit against Pfizer this morning.
The suit alleges that Pfizer’s marketing of Viagra has been deceptive and contributed to an increase in the spread of sexually-transmitted diseases.
In Washington, I’m Hillary Wicai for Marketplace.
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