Pfizer Plans To Shuffle Its Divisions -- WSJ
July 12 2018 - 03:02AM
Dow Jones News
By Allison Prang
This article is being republished as part of our daily
reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S.
print edition of The Wall Street Journal (July 12, 2018).
Pfizer Inc. is organizing itself into three different businesses
as it continues to mull the future of its over-the-counter
medicines unit.
The drugmaker said Wednesday it will have an innovative
medicines business, a consumer health-care division, which includes
the company's over-the-counter drugs, and an established medicines
division, which would have brands such as Viagra and Lipitor.
The company said the innovative medicines and consumer
health-care divisions will make up around 75% of Pfizer's
revenue.
Pfizer has been reviewing strategic options for the consumer
health-care business, which sells brands like Advil pain medicine,
Centrum vitamins and ChapStick lip balm, since last year. The
company expects to make a decision regarding the business this
year.
Pfizer said the changes will go into effect next year and don't
affect its 2018 guidance or its capital-allocation plans.
Pfizer expects to lose U.S. exclusivity of Lyrica, a painkiller
for helping with diabetic nerve pain and fibromyalgia, as early as
December. However, the company said it thinks its
established-brands division -- which includes that treatment --
"has the potential to generate sustainable modest revenue
growth."
"Urbanization and the rise of the middle class in emerging
markets, particularly in Asia, are providing additional access
opportunities and generating significant demand for branded and
generic established medicines," the company said.
Shares in Pfizer rose less than 0.1% in premarket trading. The
stock has gained 3.3% so far this year.
Right now, Pfizer divides its medicines into two different
groups when it reports earnings -- innovative health, which
includes Lyrica along with oncology and rare-disease treatments,
and essential health, which includes products like Lipitor, Xanax
and the EpiPen along with sterile injectable pharmaceuticals.
Revenue for Lyrica in the company's latest quarter was $1.13
billion, flat from the comparable quarter a year earlier. The drug
brought in the second-most revenue of any other treatment in the
company's innovative health division.
Pfizer had announced Tuesday that it was going to hold off in
upping some of its drug prices after talking with President Donald
Trump. The company said delaying the increases was "to give the
president an opportunity to work on his blueprint to strengthen the
healthcare system."
Mr. Trump has made an effort to lower drug prices. It was
previously reported that Pfizer was raising prices for over 40
prescription drugs, including Lyrica.
Write to Allison Prang at allison.prang@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
July 12, 2018 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)
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