Pfizer: The Best-Looking Or Biggest Boy In The Playground?

Main Category: Pharma Industry / Biotech Industry
Also Included In: Conferences
Article Date: 11 Feb 2009 - 4:00 PDT

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Pfizer is a giant. Nobody can argue that fact. However, if you cast your mind back to carefree sunny school-days, would Pfizer be viewed through the sands of time as the best looking boy in school who was at the top of the pile, or as the school bully that left a trail of destruction in his wake?

No matter what your opinion on the above, this boy has decided to join forces with another heavyweight who he knows will make him a stronger entity on the playground. The acquisition of Wyeth by Pfizer will almost certainly ensure that Pfizer stays at the top of the Pharma food-chain in regard to prescription drug sales. A position that it has been forecast would fall from grace within the next 5 years.

One of the primary motives for the Pfizer-Wyeth union is the fact that Pfizer's mature product portfolio is facing patent expiry. However, Wyeth will not solve Pfizer's impending Lipitor expiry threat, itself facing patent expiry of its own biggest drug, Effexor XR. This acquisition will be fruitful to Pfizer because of new areas of expansion and growth, in the realms of therapeutic focus and drug technology - vaccines and injectable biologic medicines will be diversified into. Pfizer will also be able to streamline areas where it and Wyeth overlap, creating a streamlined workforce and enabling cost-cutting. But what is Wyeth getting out of this new relationship?

Whenever two people come together, inevitably certain things take a backseat to the new relationship. Pfizer and Wyeth becoming an item means they need to trim some fat, they haven't got time to interact with certain friends anymore. Speculation is rife already about job losses and some sources say that if and when the acquisition goes ahead, thousands of jobs could be at risk. An inconvenient truth.

In all the news coverage about this M&A, the benefits to Pfizer are continuously extolled but Wyeth rarely gets a mention. This is not a done deal, yet, but how will you be affected if this unification goes ahead?

Bill Shank. VP of Women's Healthcare at Bayer said recently: "I have lived through two Pfizer acquisitions and the recent merger of Bayer and Berlex. At the eyeforpharma Sales Force Effectiveness Summit I will offer insight into ways to maintain focus, continue to prosper and avoid the pitfalls often associated with change of this magnitude."

To read more about Mr Shank's "Mergers and Acquisitions: A Survival Guide" presentation and the SFE Summit, click here.

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