MlfllHIIIHIWIIIH PHARMACEUTICALS
PFIZER EXPECTS A PROFIT DECLINE Drugmaker announces cost-cutting plan, withdrawal of Bextra FIZER CEO HANK M C K I N -
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nell told financial analysts in New Ifork City last week that 2005 will be a "transition year" for his company in which sales will be flat and earnings will drop by 6%. He predicted a return to double-digit earnings growth in 2006, driven by a program to save $4 billion per year. McKinnell and other executives at Pfizer, the world's largest drugmaker, sought to assure analysts that the company's global scale, R&D prowess, and financial strength will help it clear a number of current and upcoming hurdles. These include falling
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sales for the COX-2 pain relievers Bextra and Celebrex and the emergence of generic competition to high-sales drugs such as Camptosar for cancer, Neurontin for seizures, and the antibiotic Zithromax. Another hurdle emerged two days after the April 5 meeting when Pfizer announced that it is withdrawing Bextra in the U.S. and Europe following discussions with FDA about the risks of a rare skin reaction. The company will also include a strong warning of potential heart risk in packaging for Celebrex. At the meeting, the company
POLICY
YUCCA MOUNTAIN DATA UNDER FIRE Science to support Nevada nuclear waste repository fabricated
TEST SYSTEM Model waste canisters at Yucca Mountain are used to gauge the impact of temperature and heat.
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ments released by a House subcommittee last week show that government scientists fabricated data needed to support construction of the nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain, in Nevada. At a House hearing, three representatives from Nevada grilled Department of Energy officials and told them to stop site work until an independent investiga-
tion into the depth of the duplicity is conducted. DOE officials, however, said they were doing their own investigations, and so far, they believe no evidence demonstrates that the underlying science for the project has been compromised. The revelations, first made public by D O E in mid-March, have led to ongoing criminal investigations by the Offices of Inspector General for the Interior and Energy Departments and the FBI. At a minimum, the investigations will delay DOE's press to file a license application with the
said it will achieve the $4 billion in annual cost savings by 2008, at a price of up to $6 billion, but analysts were disappointed at the firm's refusal to detail how it arrived at the figure. After the meeting, David R. Risinger, a pharmaceutical analyst at Merrill Lynch, told clients that "at this point, it appears to be somewhat of a phantom number." Risinger expects that the company will leave its sales force largely intact and look for savings in procurement, information technology systems, and manufacturing. Despite the planned cuts, Pfizer revealed that R&D spending will increase this year, to about $8 billion compared with $7.7 billion in 2004 John L. LaMattina, president of Pfizer's global R&D operations, told attendees that the firm has 149 new molecular entities in its pipeline, including 102 in early development, 33 in midstage development, eight in advanced development, and six in registration. —MICHAEL MCCOY
Nuclear Regulatory Commission to build the repository. Although only partial and redacted e-mails and other documents have been made public, they show that scientists admitted to one another that they were keeping separate records—one set for quality assurance inspections and another, accurate, set. They also describe compromises needed to overcome difficulties in meeting schedules on the huge project. The messages were exchanged in the late 1990s and focused on science and models for water incursion through the mountain and climate projections for future centuries —contentious issues that are critical to the project's success. This latest problem joins others, such as a court decision last summer throwing out the repository's radiation standard, which determines how much radioactivity may be released to the environment over the millenia the waste is radioactive.-JEFF JOHNSON WWW.CEN-0NLINE.ORG
