Pfizer honcho details plans to boost sales

Pfizer's drug chief opened up his playbook yesterday at a San Francisco investment conference. Ian Read, president of worldwide pharmaceutical operations, confided worries about its top seller, Lipitor, which posted fewer new patient starts than anticipated recently. To turn that around, Pfizer is flogging new data on the drug--namely a study it sponsored that showed patients switching from Lipitor to generic Zocor had a 30 percent greater risk of heart attack, stroke, or death.

Exubera has the company worried, too, and for good reason. The diabetes drug was supposed to be a best-seller, but it has delivered only $4 million in sales so far. Pfizer has dispatched "diabetes educators" to buttonhole doctors and explain how to use the drug.

- read this CNBC article

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