Pharmaceutical giant Pfizer said today that fourth-quarter net income nearly tripled from a year ago to $767m, boosted by the acquisition of rival drugmaker Wyeth.
Pfizer, the maker of blockbuster cholesterol treatment Lipitor and Viagra for erectile dysfunction, said the results pushed its yearly profit for 2009 up 7% to $8.6 billion.
Revenues for the world's biggest drugmaker rose 16% in the October-December period to $16.5 billion, and for the year were up 4% to $50 billion.
Pfizer employs over 5,000 workers in Ireland after the deal to buy Wyeth.
'During the fourth quarter, we closed the Wyeth acquisition and immediately began the integration of our operations, advancing the transformation of the company,' Pfizer chairman and CEO Jeff Kindler said.
The fourth quarter results amounted to a profit of 49 cents a share excluding special items, a penny below Wall Street forecasts. Revenues were better than expected.
The jump in profits in the quarter also reflected the prior year's charges due to litigation over its pain medications Bextra and Celebrex, and from cost cutting. Another factor was the divestment of biotech unit Vicuron required under the Wyeth tie-up.
