At a meeting for investment analysts, Pfizer presented strategies to accelerate and refocus its pipeline and exploit new opportunities for global growth. “We have made real changes in how we operate our business — in our structure, culture and leadership — so that we have a much stronger foundation in place for pursuing the many opportunities before us,” said chairman and chief executive officer, Jeff Kindler. “We are delivering and accelerating our pipeline, and we will seize promising growth opportunities spanning geographies, therapeutic areas and products.”
   
The growth strategies include optimizing the company’s patent-protected portfolio; generating revenue from established products; accelerating growth in emerging markets; focusing on continuous improvement and innovation; and investing in complementary businesses.
   
Throughout this year and the next, the company anticipates a number of medicines progressing from Phase II to Phase III, including a total of 15 to 20 Phase III starts by the end of 2009 in disease areas ranging from cancer, to diabetes, to pain. The company plans to increase Phase III programs by 50 to 75% to 24 –28; with 15-20 regulatory submissions between 2010 and 2012.
   
Pfizer’s R&D has focused its resources on “high-value” disease areas including: oncology, pain, diabetes/obesity, immunology/inflammation, schizophrenia and Alzheimer’s disease. The company is accelerating clinical development on 20 programs in disease areas such as arthritis, cancer, pain and diabetes and is ending work on 24 programs in order to reinvest in these high-value areas. In 2007, Pfizer supplemented its internal R&D efforts with seven clinical candidates, including four biologics in prioritized disease areas. The company has expanded its early stage product investment strategy, including the establishment of the Biotherapeutics and Bioinnovation Center (BBC) based in CA. Pfizer currently has 26 biologics in 8 therapeutic areas.
   
With respect to opportunities for global growth, Pfizer highlighted new commercial models that take advantage of its existing medicines and its global R&D, manufacturing, sales and marketing. The company will continue to focus on delivering revenue from patent-protected medicines, seven of which are market leaders in their disease areas. Revenues from certain in-line medicines including Geodon, Xalatan, Zyvox, and Vfend are growing at double-digit rates, and revenues from new medicines Chantix, Lyrica and Sutent more than doubled to $3.3 billion in 2007, versus $1.5 billion in 2006.
   
The company is establishing a new business unit focused on oncology, which will allow the company to expedite launches of oncology agents, and to focus research efforts on cancers common in Asia, including liver, esophagus and nasopharynx.
   
Pfizer also announced plans to capture greater revenue in emerging markets in Latin America, Eastern Europe and Asia. For example in Asia, the company plans to expand operations in China from 110 cities to more than 650 cities, growing established products and launching new products.
   
The company recently formed an Established Products Business Unit, with the goal of achieving double-digit growth in the global market for established medicines. The company expects to do this through product enhancements and reformulations, pursuing new indications, and intensifying late-stage lifecycle plans. The newly formed unit will execute growth strategies tailored to the needs of markets such as China, India, Brazil and Russia, branded traditional markets such as Japan, Western Europe and South Korea, and intellectual-property-driven markets such as the U.S. and Canada.  
   
“By pursuing growth strategies in the right geographies, with the right products and business models, we will drive change, seize opportunities and create value for customers,” said Ian Read, president of Worldwide Pharmaceutical Operations. “We are meaningfully diversifying our risk, which will be a significant advantage to us as we compete in this fast-changing marketplace.”
   
The company’s FY08 guidance includes revenues ranging from $47 to $49 billion and adjusted R&D expenses ranging from $7.3 to $7.6 billion. The company is creating a lower, more flexible cost base to align with revenues by taking on certain cost management initiatives, such as increasing outsourced manufacturing and further reducing its global real estate footprint.
   
“We are proactively managing our total cost structure to do what is necessary to size the company appropriately to align with our revenues so that we deliver growing profitability after the Lipitor loss of exclusivity,” said chief financial officer Frank D’Amelio.