09/23/2008 08h57
Pfizer searches partners to find new medicines
Valor Econômico - 09/23/2008
Willing to increase its participation in the Brazilian market, American laboratory Pfizer is searching for new partners in the country. The purpose of the pharmaceutical company is to make partnerships with doctors and academic researches that already pursue projects for the development of new medical products. "We want to make long term deals and we will make partnerships", says Philippe Crettex, president of the Pfizer laboratory in Brazil. "We will make the experience in research, the financial funds and Pfizer's world presence available to the partners." To reach the goal, the laboratory decided to make an inventory of the research projects of new medical products that are being developed in the country. With this data bank, the company will evaluate the projects that are more adequate to its product line. The giant pharmaceutical company, with sales exceeding US$ 48 billion in 2007, owner of the medicine against sexual impotence Viagra, cholesterol reducer Lipitor and anti-smoking treatment Champix, is focusing on emerging countries, like Brazil, in the attempt to raise its sales whereas mature countries show more modest growth taxes. Pfizer has the world challenge of finding new medicines that can compensate the future income loss with the end of the patent of important drugs of its portfolio. It is the case of Lipitor, whose intellectual protection ends at the beginning of the next decade. The drug sells more than US$ 10 billion in the world per year and it is the flagship of the laboratory in the country. According to Crettex, Pfizer is studying ways to prevent the Lipitor molecule to end up having its sales affected by the appearance of generic medicines as soon as the patent ends, in 2011. Among the alternatives, the company studies the possibility of making licensing deals with third parties, but the final decision will only be taken in the next year. As a complementing strategy, the pharmaceutical company also evaluates the interest in buying brands or closing deals with companies that work in the country as a way to increase its products portfolio.
