Pharma execs practice positive thinking

Throw a bunch of pharma execs into a room with financial analysts, and what do you get? Almost unmitigated hope. Thinking positive is a must when analysts are around, so as industry leaders stand up to address Bear Stearns' healthcare conference this week, they're trumpeting the growth in overseas markets [1], and soft-pedaling unpleasantness like layoffs and restructuring.

• Wyeth [2] EVP Jim Connolly credited the overseas market with the success of its pneumonia vaccine Prevnar, the company's second-biggest seller; he said Prevnar sales rocketed to $1.2 billion in the first half of 2007, a 32 percent increase, and projected annual sales of $3 billion by 2009.
• Medtronic [3] CEO William Hawkins predicted double-digit international growth pegging China as the big gorilla [4] of overseas markets. Within 10 years, he said, China will supplant Japan as the company's second-biggest market. Meanwhile, the company's cutting 900 jobs.
• Pfizer CEO Jeffrey Kindler [5] said Asian and Latin American markets are growing at twice the rate of those in developed countries, and cited his company's new plants in China and new R&D in India [6] and Korea [7] as part of a strategy to take advantage of that growth. Pfizer, of course, is embroiled in a multibillion-dollar restructuring that includes some 10,000 layoffs [8].

- check out the report [9] from CNNMoney

Related Articles:
Wyeth stumbles badly trying to develop new drugs. Report [10]
China now leads India in ongoing clinical trials. Report [11]
Troubled Pfizer blueprints biotech venture effort. Report [12]