Can Pfizer Afford the ?Non-Profit?"Health" Association's Lobbying Effort??

[rothenbj]

As anyone that spends any time watching TV can attest, Pfizer has spent enormous sums of money promoting Chantix. I would suppose that they are at a do or die stage, at least in the US. Here are the first four full year USA sales figures-

2007 $ 701m
2008 $ 489m
2009 $ 386m
2010 $ 330m

Although sales have increased by $ 55m over last year globally, the US market appears to be dropping rather quickly despite the massive ad campaign and the efforts of organizations like the ALA, ACS, CTFK, et al and the FDA to protect their interests.

I personally would expect a full force effort in 2011 to try to stomp out further erosion of their customer base by the electronic cigarette so we must be ready to defend against the bans wherever they arrive,

That being said, will BP be willing to continue to throw good money after bad if sales continue to fall. The profit margin, at least in the US has to be shrinking and the vision of US blockbuster status a vanishing thought. Nearly a 15% loss in sales with the money that had to be thrown at the product has got to be noticed by the big boys at Pfizer.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Interesting post Might it also be because of Chantix's reputation for having fairly serious side effects in some people? There's no doubt in my mind the e-cig is making a dent in their bottom line though.

Out of interest do you have similar figures for any of the other anti smoking drugs and NRT's?

 

[rothenbj]

Funny you should ask. Smith Kline's annual report for 2010 is not available, but in 2009 their global sales of Welbutrin dropped to
132lm from 342lm in 2008 The US sales were 88lm down from over 300 mil. pounds in '08. Now understand, Welbutrin is first and foremost an anti-depressant thus the smoking cessation numbers (Zyban) must be a sub total of these numbers. Years ago they had a separate line for it, but I suppose the number has become insignifficant.

There big money is made on NRT products, OTC and they're still going strong globally, but I'd guess a lot of those sales take place in the US, but they give no breakdown. Between 2007 and 2009 they've run in the 300 mil pound area globally, a bid more or less but pretty consistent.

 

[Bill Godshall]

rothenbj

Please post weblinks for the Chantix sales data, and for the 2009 GSK annual report.

Also, what is an "lm" for Wellbutrin sales.

For comparison, NRT sales in the US have remained steady at about $1 billion annually for the past decade, with gum sales remaining the highest and steady, patch sales declining, and lozenge sales increasing.

 

[rothenbj]

rothenbj

Please post weblinks for the Chantix sales data, and for the 2009 GSK annual report.

Also, what is an "lm" for Wellbutrin sales.

For comparison, NRT sales in the US have remained steady at about $1 billion annually for the past decade, with gum sales remaining the highest and steady, patch sales declining, and lozenge sales increasing.

Sorry Bill, I couldn't find the special characters on this netbook to type the pound symbol, but the "l" is for pounds and the "m" is for millions. Conversion rate these days is a bit over 1 pound = $1.6. All info pulled from annual reports from both companies.

PFE you can find Chantix numbers in the fourth quarter reports in the YTD Pharma Sales charts each year

Financial Reports | Pfizer: the world's largest research-based pharmaceutical company

GSK hasn't released this year's reports yet, but last year is their current and previous years are in archive link. As I wrote, Zyban no longer has a specific line item.

Annual Report 2009 - Investors - GlaxoSmithKline

Annual reports archive - Investors - GlaxoSmithKline

The good thing about my checking out this information is I finally figured out my last pharma quit attempt had to be betweem 1989 & 1991, probably 1990 after the launch and media buzz about how great it was. I lasted about two months, about as long as I took the drug. Soon after stopping it's use, the fog and anguish returned and within a month I was back to smoking. Then I was told I should have kept taking it for six months but I was no longer eligible for prescription coverage and I wasn't willing to pay for six months and then have the same results. However, I think that was bull because I read while checking this out that the program was supposed to be seven weeks.

I did have one more quit attempt in the early 2000s with a group hypnosis that worked for a few weeks but again failure. That's when I finally gave up ever trying to quit again until I got talked into buying a PV by my gf 18.5 months ago. In two weeks I hit my 1st year without a puff on a cigarette for the first time in 43 years. Thank you PVs and Swedish snus!

Half that scoot in my avatar (my 11/11/11 pre-birthday present to myself) was paid for with my savings to date with the balance of the cost paid by not smoking the rest of this year.

 

[Papa Lazarou]

Thanks for the further info.

I see that Pfizer are slashing jobs in the UK as they are closing their research facility here, due to "the need to refocus the company on its competitive strengths and in less high risk areas of research". FT.com / UK / Business - Pfizer to close UK research centre This facility has in the past developed things like ...... which of course was a massive commercial success. Perhaps an indication of leaner times ahead for BP in general.

 

[rothenbj]

Papa, I don't view the closing of the research center as anything more than what the pharma industry has been doing the last 10 years, focusing on their core competencies. They started outsourcing most of the administrative activities such as HR, payroll, accounting, IT functions wherever it made sense. Let's face it, new product development is better performed by the smaller, more energetic bio/pharma companies. They are more nimble and less likely to be buried in corporate bureaucracy.

What makes them able to make early progress move faster also inhibits them when they move into the approval process and through into marketing and sales. This is where BP has the upper hand, plus,as we've seen, they are tight with the FDA. Once there is a promising product, BP has the money, experience and influence to get it to market. Large Corporate R&D has a hard time being as effective plus you half to understand how much research ends in failure. It's cheaper to pay a premium for a promising compound than to develop it in house, or that appears to be the mindset of BP today.

Pfizer has long had the reputation of poor R&D performance within the industry so I don't see this closing as a sign of weakness, plus it's not like they're short on research centers. They must have nine or ten others around the world. I think they have two others in the UK alone and they picked up a big one in Pearl River when they acquired Wyeth a few years ago. Just long term strategy and short term investor appeasement, IMHO

 

[TNT]

Funny you should ask. Smith Kline's annual report for 2010 is not available, but in 2009 their global sales of Welbutrin dropped to
132lm from 342lm in 2008 The US sales were 88lm down from over 300 mil. pounds in '08. Now understand, Welbutrin is first and foremost an anti-depressant thus the smoking cessation numbers (Zyban) must be a sub total of these numbers. Years ago they had a separate line for it, but I suppose the number has become insignifficant.
.

Not to bring up an old thread, but a generic of Wellbutrin XL was released in the US in 2007 or thereabouts.