The most disastrous, if least surprising, news from Pfizer's
Pfizer and Nektar have previously stated that sales of Exubera have been dismal since its FDA approval in January 2006. Yesterday, Pfizer revealed just how dismal. In the first nine months of 2007, the diabetes treatment generated $12 million in sales, with $7 million of that in the most recent quarter. That's a far cry from the $2 billion blockbuster Pfizer predicted Exubera would eventually become, even as recently as this year.
Besides the millions of dollars Pfizer wasted in marketing Exubera, it also paid developer Nektar more than $100 million in just the first two quarters of 2007 to manufacture the drug and further research it.
It would be easy to dub other inhalable insulin developers, like MannKind
No, the one clear winner from this debacle is Sanofi-Aventis
In hindsight, it's easy to see that Pfizer overpaid for full marketing rights to the drug. Even more ironically, just last week, Pfizer was rumored as a possible buyer for Sanofi. If the rumors are true, for the sake of Pfizer's investors, let's hope it won't overpay Sanofi twice in two years.