Pfizer

When federal officials lowered the hammer this week on Pfizer Inc. for marketing its blockbuster epilepsy drug Neurontin for non-approved uses, they were driven in part by the idea that such prescriptions subject patients to unwarranted risks. Pfizer agreed Thursday to pay $430 million in criminal and civil penalties to federal and state agencies because Neurontin had been marketed for uses never approved by the Food and Drug Administration. The case stemmed from actions brought by Warner-Lambert Co. employees before Pfizer bought the company in 2000.

A $60 billion purchase of drugmaker Wyeth by rival Pfizer Inc. is not a certainty, but if it does happen, it could lead to thousands of job cuts throughout Wyeth, including at its extensive Philadelphia-area operations. No one from the two pharmaceutical companies would comment yesterday on reports of ongoing acquisition talks. Industry observers said Pfizer was desperate to do a deal to replace the billions in sales it would lose when the patent on its blockbuster cholesterol drug, Lipitor, expired in two years.

A small King of Prussia start-up developing experimental treatments for Type 2 diabetes will be acquired by Pfizer Inc. for an undisclosed amount. Pfizer said yesterday that it would buy BioRexis Pharmaceutical Corp., which has 50 employees and two key drug compounds in early testing. The acquisition, expected to close in the first or second quarter, would give the world's largest drugmaker a "new technology and potential new product candidates in diabetes," Pfizer senior vice president Edmund P. Harrigan said.

Drug-makers Pfizer Inc., Upjohn Co. and American Cyanamid Co. yesterday announced plans to slash thousands of jobs in restructuring programs intended to cut costs by hundreds of millions of dollars. The moves illustrate the pharmaceutical industry's struggle to adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace in the midst of national health-care reform. Pfizer Inc. said it would eliminate 3,000 jobs to save at least $130 million, while Upjohn plans to eliminate 1,500 jobs to save a "minimum" of $150 million in annual operating expenses.

Maybe the 15 women chatting over coffee at the Wegmans supermarket cafe in Malvern should start their own pharmaceutical firm. They have the brain power, if not the capital. A scientist who spent 19 years in drug development sat a few tables away from a coordinator of clinical trials. A few managed pharmaceutical finances, and one administered a $2.7 billion global research and development budget. One handled drug pricing and another edited marketing materials. The former human resources person squeezed in next to the woman who once worked in supply logistics.

URL/Mutual Pharmaceutical Co. Inc. is embroiled in seven lawsuits across the nation with brand-name pharmaceutical companies to sell generic versions of drugs. One of the drugs is Quinapril, a $600-million-a-year blood pressure medicine sold by Pfizer Inc., under the brand name Accupril. Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, filed its original patent on quinapril hydrochloride, the key ingredient in Accupril, in August 1982. Pfizer later got three more patents, including a "formulation" patent using carbonates to stabilize the product.

Officials from Pfizer Inc., whose blockbuster cholesterol drug Lipitor faces increased generic competition this month, told the Wall Street Journal Wednesday that the company would discontinue many of the unusual promotional programs it conducted in the last six months to retain revenue from the drug. Pfizer, which lost exclusivity on Lipitor in late November, had offered $4 coupons and struck deals with some health plans, which the Journal reported cost the company more than $87 million.

He's fat, neurotic, and unwittingly proffers his body as a romantic hideaway for vermin. And you love him so much that you spend hundreds or thousands of dollars yearly paying for pills, vaccines, and other products to keep him healthy. If this describes your relationship with your dog, you and your wallet know exactly why analysts expect companies bidding for the animal-health businesses of Pfizer Inc. and Merck & Co. Inc. to act like a pack of retrievers in hot pursuit of a drool-covered tennis ball: The market for these medicines is bounding.

As strip shopping centers go, Gateway Plaza in West Chester is as uninspiring as most. But when you're killing time on a Sunday morning waiting for the pizza you ordered, there's no telling what passes for entertainment. Greg Brandner had just placed his order at Domino's on East Gay Street about a year ago when a storefront in Gateway caught his eye. Rather than manicures or almost anything for $1, the store - its logo a yellow lightbulb - was selling "bright ideas. " The Marketing Department is a unique franchise selling (with no appointment necessary)

A COMPANY'S "dividend yield" expresses the relationship of a stock's price and the amount of its annual dividend. It's a number that investors need to understand. Consider Pfizer Inc. It's trading around $25 per share, paying out 22 cents per quarter (88 cents a year) as a dividend. Take $0.88, divide it by $25 and get 0.035. Multiply that by 100, and you have a dividend yield of 3.5 percent. If you pay $25 for a share of Pfizer, you'll earn 3.5 percent per year, just from dividends alone.