Pfizer named company of the year by Forbes

The US drugmaker Pfizer has been named company of the year by theprestigious business magazine Forbes, which says that the decision "was fairly easy." A six-page profile on the company notes that "the people who brought us Viagra (sildenafil) have more blockbusters on the way."

As well as Viagra, which Forbes says will generate some $1.4 billion in sales in 1999, at least six other drugs still in the pipeline are likely to emerge as blockbusters over the next five years. They include Zeldox (ziprasidone) for psychotic disorders, Relpax (eletriptan) for migraine, Tikosyn (dofetilide) for atrial fibrillation, Alond (zopolrestat) for diabetic retinopathy and droloxifene for osteoporosis.

The magazine says that Pfizer's success is due in part to a combination of "marketing aggressiveness and savvy," having expanded its sales force by more than 50% in just two years, and the tripling of R&D spending in eight years to $2.2 billion, or 18% of its pharmaceutical sales. By way of contrast, Forbes says that Merck & Co, the current leader in US drug sales, had a 1998 R&D budget equivalent to 10% of turnover.