Lipitor, the cholesterol-lowering drug from Pfizer (NYSE:PFE) , has been the world’s best-selling drug since the start of the decade. But its lead is withering as a slew of cousin lipid drugs and generics enter the market.
Pfizer PFE expects global Lipitor sales to drop 3% to 5% this year from last year’s $12.9 billion. In the U.S., Lipitor revenue fell 13% to $1.8 billion in the first nine months of this year. Sales are expected to plunge further in 2011, when its patent expires.
Though it faces one of the toughest challenges in the industry, Pfizer is not alone.
Branded prescription drug firms are under constant assault from many directions.
At the top of the list: generic copycat drugs, which are chipping away at blockbusters and other top-selling brands. In 2006, two of the most successful branded drugs lost patent protection — Pfizer’s depression drug Zoloft and Merck’s (NYSE:MRK) MRK cholesterol drug Zocor.
Next year, the ax will fall on ulcer drug Prevacid and the bone-loss slowing drug Fosamax.
The drug companies face further pressure from large private insurers, which are negotiating with drug firms to lower prices.
At the same time, it’s getting harder to develop new blockbuster drugs to fill the product pipeline as regulators apply closer scrutiny.
In some ways, drug companies are victims of their own success.
The industry is still one of the most profitable in the U.S. — just not as much as it was five years ago. As of Friday, pharmaceuticals ranked No. 19 among IBD’s 197 industry groups, up from 116 six months ago.
Prescription drug companies are fighting back to stay healthy. In doing so, they’re acting like much of the rest of corporate America when trouble hits. They’re cutting costs, restructuring, outsourcing and diversifying.
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