Exubera

Pfizer hangs sale sign on Exubera plant

Tracy Staton — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 10:27:54 -0500

Call your Realtor: Pfizer has put its ex-Exubera plant up for sale. The Terre Haute, Indiana, facility had been in the Pfizer family since 1948, when the drugmaker bought it from the U.S. government. Since then, it's undergone a variety of expansions and upgrades, including more than $300 million in investment since 1999. At its peak, the 580,000-square-foot facility on almost 1,000 acres employed some 800 people.

Most recently, the plant was used to make Exubera, Pfizer's inhaled insulin product. But just one year into the product's launch, Pfizer pulled the plug on the formulation because of lackluster sales. Exubera just hadn't caught on with patients, who disliked the oversized inhaler device. And payers were slow to adopt the inhaled formula, too. Pfizer took a $2.8 billion charge to shut down production; about 600 Terre Haute workers were idled at the time.

- read the story in the Indianapolis Star
- see the Wall Street Journal Health Blog post

SPOTLIGHT: Ex-Exubera plant to shut down

Tue, 13 May 2008 06:59:52 -0400

Pfizer will shutter its sterile manufacturing plant in Terre Haute--where the now-defunct inhaled insulin product Exubera was made--by mid-2009, eliminating the facility's remaining 140 jobs. More than 650 workers already were laid off there. Report

What Exubera says about safety

Thu, 10 Apr 2008 06:59:54 -0400

When Pfizer announced yesterday that the inhaled insulin product it spiked last fall may have triggered lung cancer in a few patients, pundits immediately pronounced the death of all insulin inhalers, may they rest in peace. Pfizer's partner on Exubera, Nektar Therapeutics, has been looking for another parter to relaunch the product--but not anymore. The damage may even spill over onto inhaled forms of other meds.

All most likely true. But the Exubera fallout may be instructive for all drugs, actually. It shows the impossibility of guaranteeing perfect safety for prescription meds. As In the Pipeline points out today, Exubera was tested for years and years, and insulin itself has been on the market for decades. The FDA's stamp of approval couldn't guarantee that this drug--or any drug--wouldn't cause injury or death at some doses or in some people.

- see the item at In the Pipeline

Related Articles:
Inhaled insulin lung cancer warning riles investors
Pfizer gives Nektar $135M for Exubera settlement
Pfizer kills off Exubera, hunts for deals
Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer
UK: Exubera not worth the price.
MannKind bets the farm on inhaled insulin

Pfizer cuts 660 at Exubera plant

Tue, 29 Jan 2008 06:59:57 -0500

Workers at Pfizer's Terre Haute, Indiana, plant where the ill-fated Exubera was made are, shall we say, less than exuberant today. The company has decided to cut 660 jobs there; after all, it's not making the inhaled insulin product anymore, so those staffers aren't needed. In fact, they've been on paid leave since Exubera production stopped in October.

Pfizer will start letting workers go in March and all 660 will get the adios by mid-year. Some 140 other workers will be kept on, because they work on other products at the plant. Unfortunately, however, those products are antibiotics--and declining demand for them may spell doom for the plant in the long term.

State and local officials are reeling from the announcement. Pfizer spent $300 million upgrading the plant over the last five years, so they'd been crossing their fingers that the company would move a new product line there. But that multimillion-dollar technology is specific to Exubera, so it's not easily adapted to manufacturing other meds.

- read the layoff report from the Indianapolis Star
- here's more on the plant's long-term future

Related Articles:
Pfizer kills off Exubera, hunts for deals. Report
Pfizer gives Nektar $135M for Exubera settlement. Report
Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer. Report
UK: Exubera not worth the price. Report
FDA approves Pfizer's inhaled insulin. Report

ALSO NOTED: Regulators reconsider Ransom recall; Consort profits plummet on Exubera loss

Thu, 13 Dec 2007 06:59:50 -0500

> Whew! That's the mood at U.K. pharma William Ransom as regulators dialed back their demands for a recall of 11 products. Report

> Talk about side effects. Consort Medical, the medical devices company that made components for the abandoned Pfizer insulin formula Exubera, saw profits drop by 41 percent on charges related to shutting down the factory where those components were made. Report

> Generics maker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries got the FDA's final approval to sell a copycat version of Trileptal, the Novartis epilepsy drug; the two companies still are embroiled in patient litigation over the product, however. Report

> A Utah doctor has been charged with illegally prescribing painkillers to as many as 80 patients a day in what may be the largest prescription-drug case in state history. Report

> Healthcare services company United Drug has bought JVA Analytical of Dublin. Report

> Like so many other big drug developers, GlaxoSmithKline has announced that it will be shaking up its R&D operations. Report

> At a meeting with investors yesterday, Merck highlighted several of its late-stage pipeline hopes. Report

> Wyeth is revealing more Pristiq data today from two Phase III clinical studies of the drug. Report

And Finally... They thought it was just a cold, and it was--but unfortunately, it was the killer version. Report

Pfizer pays $135M to ease Exubera pain

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 06:59:54 -0500

Exubera fallout alert: Pfizer has reached a deal with its partner on the drug, Nektar Therapeutics. The drug giant will pay Nektar $135 million for its trouble. And if Nektar finds a new partner to help it develop the inhaled insulin product, Pfizer will hand over all its rights to the new venture.

Meanwhile, Consort Medical, which made plastic applicators for the product, is shutting a plant and laying off 165. The manufacturing facility, located in Milton Keynes, England, will be sold.

You'll recall that Pfizer took a $2.8 billion charge against earnings in the third quarter to pay for pulling the plug on the once-so-promising Exubera.

- check out Pfizer's release
- see this report on Nektar from CNN Money
- read about Consort's consolidation in Plastics & Rubber Weekly

Related Articles:
Pfizer kills off Exubera, hunts for deals. Report
Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer. Report
UK: Exubera not worth the price. Report
FDA approves Pfizer's inhaled insulin. Report

Pfizer kills off Exubera, hunts for deals

Thu, 18 Oct 2007 06:59:57 -0400

It's official: Pfizer is giving up on Exubera. Pulling its plug cost the company $2.8 billion against third-quarter earnings, a charge that sent profits tumbling 77 percent to $761 million. Once a blockbuster hopeful, the inhaled diabetes drug failed to catch on, delivering only $4 million in sales during the last quarter.

Meanwhile, analysts are still hashing over the company's next deal. A Citigroup report--based on conversations with Pfizer management--says the company will be "more transaction oriented" over the next year and a half. But rather than focusing on big buys, such as Amgen or Wyeth, the company probably will focus on smaller fry. Biogen Idec and its $23 billion market cap, for instance. The report recommends Biogen and ImClone as good fits.

- see this excerpt from Pfizer's release on Exubera
- see the full financial results
- check out this MSNBC report
- read the WSJ deal speculation

Related Articles:
Who should Pfizer buy? Report
Troubled Pfizer blueprints biotech venture effort. Report
Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer. Report
UK: Exubera not worth the price. Report
FDA approves Pfizer's inhaled insulin. Report

Read more on: Pfizer | Exubera | Diabetes | Biogen Idec | ImClone

Pfizer honcho details plans to boost sales

Thu, 20 Sep 2007 06:59:55 -0400

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

Related Articles:
Pfizer's future rests with biotech. Report
Pfizer goes public with R&D pipeline. Report
Troubled Pfizer blueprints biotech venture effort. Report
Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer. Report

SPOTLIGHT: Exubera pain grows worse

Thu, 30 Aug 2007 06:59:52 -0400

The pain of dismal Exubera sales is spreading. West Pharmaceutical Services, which makes 60 percent of the inhaler used to deliver the insulin spray, told the Securities and Exchange Commission that it's cutting production in response to lower-than-expected turnover. The highly anticipated Pfizer product only sold $4 million worth during the second quarter. "We expect Pfizer's high inventory levels and slower-than-expected demand will affect our fourth-quarter 2007 and full-year 2008 sales," according to documents filed with the SEC. The filing goes on to state that West has cut production of the inhaler to one shift per day. Report