Pfizer said yesterday that its quarterly profit tumbled 52% from a year ago amid slumping sales of pain reliever Celebrex and slower growth for its
cholesterol-lowering Lipitor.
The world's largest drugmaker said that as a result of the latest developments, it was lowering its 2005 financial forecast and withdrawing its outlook beyond 2005.
The net profit for the third quarter was $1.589 billion, or 22 cents a share. But excluding special items, the profit amounted to 51 cents a share, or three cents better than the average Wall Street estimate on this basis. Revenue for the period to September 30 was down 5% at $12.2 billion.
Sales of the company's blockbuster pain reliever Celebrex came in at $446m, a slide of 44%. Celebrex sales have been under pressure since rival Merck took a similar drug, Vioxx, off the market after it was linked to cardiovascular trouble in certain long-term users. Celebrex, Vioxx and another Pfizer drug, Bextra, all belong to a class of drugs called Cox-2 inhibitors.
Sales of the cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor, the world's best-selling branded prescription drug, rose 6% to $2.9 billion. Pfizer attributed the slow-down in sales growth to increased competition in the highly lucrative lipid-lowering market.
Sales of its Viagra drug declined 3% to $386m during the quarter, with the company blaming a market slowturn that has been in place since 2004.
