Pfizer Inc. (PFE) Financial News - Novartis Has Blockbuster Diovan Plans After Patent Expires
Pfizer Inc. (PFE)
Novartis Has Blockbuster Diovan Plans After Patent Expires
2011-08-05 04:24:13
Quote: Pfizer Inc. (PFE), are cutting back on expensive research and
development to save cash.
Jimenez, only 13 months away from the U.S. patent
expiration of his company’s best-selling drug, Diovan, doesn’t
feel pressed to do either, Bloomberg Businessweek reports in its
Aug. 8 edition. Instead, he’s targeting administrative costs
while aggressively promoting medicines in emerging markets and
cranking out new drugs from his own labs.
The longtime consumer-products executive is betting
Novartis can maintain a third of the $6.1Â billion in annual
sales of Diovan, a hypertension drug, by focusing on sales in
emerging markets. While that may seem like a big drop, it’s
smaller than the post-patent nose dives suffered by former
blockbusters such as Pfizer’s Norvasc hypertension pill and
Merck & Co.’s cholesterol drug, Zocor.
“We can get through the Diovan patent expiration if things
go to plan,†Jimenez said in an interview at Novartis’s Basel,
Switzerland, headquarters. “The market hasn’t digested that
fully.â€
Shares Decline
Europe Pharmaceutical Index.
The company also faces the loss of patents on its second-best
seller, the cancer medicine Gleevec, starting in 2014. That puts
an additional $4.27Â billion in annual sales at risk.
Justin Smith in London.
Latin AmericaAsia, where the
blood pressure medicine already competes largely without patent
protection, will help keep its blockbuster status.
Keep $2 Billion Sales
Diovan sales are rising in those fast-growing parts of the
world even though the drug costs more than generic versions.
Many patients in markets where drug counterfeiting is widespread
are willing to pay more for a brand’s perceived quality.
Jimenez figures he can expand promotion of the drug to
doctors in these markets aggressively enough to retain at least
$2 billion in Diovan sales worldwide. If he’s right, the
strategy might buy him time...Open whole article (external link)