Pfizer - zu Unrecht im Keller
so einem "Chart" drin sind. Böse Zungen behaupten, daß neuerdings auch
Handlinien mit eingearbeitet werden. - Dann hat es jeder sozusagen "in
der Hand"...;-)
Kannst du mir sagen, wann es bei Pfizer die nächste Auszahlung gibt. Sollte ja Quartalsweise kommen, oder?
Danke
Überkauft ist die Pfizer damit noch nicht, der RSI-15 notiert jedenfalls noch im neutralen Bereich, s.a. http://www.traducer.de/star/include/alxr_c.htm
Gruß emarald
Bin mal gespannt wie ein Flitzebogen!
Tue Nov 15, 2005 09:11 AM ET
DALLAS, Nov 15 (Reuters) - High doses of Pfizer Inc.'s (PFE.N: Quote, Profile, Research) cholesterol-lowering drug Lipitor failed in a high-stakes trial to help heart attack patients significantly more than moderate doses of Merck & Co.'s (MRK.N: Quote, Profile, Research) rival Zocor, researchers said on Tuesday.
The aim of the study presented at the American Heart Association scientific meeting was to determine whether intensive lowering of "bad" LDL cholesterol with atorvastatin (Lipitor) would reduce the risk of death and other adverse events in heart attack patients more than the moderate, most widely used dose of Zocor, known by the chemical name simvastatin.
Instances of death, acute heart attack or cardiac arrest requiring resuscitation occurred in 10.4 percent of the Zocor group and 9.3 percent of the high-dose group, differences not considered statistically significant, researchers said.
füx
Heute ist sie schon wieder über 22 Dollar. War wohl nur eine technische Korrektur.
erwartete Korrektur erfolgt.
Wer wagt eine Prognose, wie's weitergeht?
(Für verzockte Bauchgefühl-Tips gibt's Kamillentee lebenslänglich...)
IMHO ist im Pfizer-Kurs inzwischen selbst ein Totalausfall von Lipitor - sei es durch einen Sieg Ranbaxys, sei es durch die Zocor-Generika - eingepreist. Letzten Sommer, als die Lipitor/Celebrex-Welt noch in Ordnung war, stand PFE bei 36 Dollar, jetzt bei 21,30. Das sind 40 Prozent weniger. Dabei macht Lipitor "nur" 20 % von Pfizers Gesamtumsatz aus. Das Pfizer-KGV von 9,5 spricht ja bereits Bände...
Fuzzi: Heute ist evtl. ein guter Tag für Deinen Einstieg bei Pfizer.
------------
Robert Steyer
Mixed Findings for Pfizer
By Robert Steyer
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
11/15/2005 5:17 PM EST
In a battle of the world's biggest-selling cholesterol drugs, researchers say high doses of Pfizer's (PFE:NYSE) Lipitor doesn't offer a benefit over regular doses of Merck's (MRK:NYSE) Zocor when measuring major coronary events among patients who had previously had a heart attack.
For the Pfizer-sponsored test of nearly 8,900 patients, researchers say "major coronary events" include heart disease-related death, heart attack and cardiac arrest, but excludes stroke. Lipitor patients had 11% fewer major coronary events, but the difference failed to achieve statistical significance.
"This was not an optimal result, but neither was it a clear-cut negative for the company," says Chris Shibutani of JP Morgan in a research note reaffirming his overweight rating on Pfizer. The study was presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Dallas.
These results could further cloud Wall Street's ability to predict Lipitor's sales-growth prospects, especially because Zocor loses U.S. patent protection next year, thus setting the stage for a flood of generic copies.
Just a month ago, Pfizer released third-quarter results that disappointed analysts, partly because Lipitor's U.S. revenue rose only 1%. The company also reduced its 2005 earnings estimates and withdrew its 2006 and 2007 predictions.
Worldwide Lipitor sales for the third quarter rose 6% to $2.9 billion. The company blamed the U.S. performance on increased competition.
However, Tuesday's results weren't a total setback for Pfizer, which sponsored the five-year test in which the highest dose of Lipitor (80 milligrams) was matched against mid-range doses of Zocor (20 milligrams to 40 milligrams). The recommended starting dose for Lipitor is 10 milligrams to 20 milligrams, and the highest Zocor dose is 80 milligrams.
Researchers say Lipitor patients achieved a significant 17% reduction in nonfatal heart attacks vs. Zocor patients, as well as a significant 13% reduction in stroke plus major coronary events.
Still, it will take some time before analysts can assess the study's economic impact on Pfizer because there's more to assessing Lipitor's sales prospects than just science. Lipitor continues to be challenged by other brand-name cholesterol-fighting drugs class, but the biggest challenge comes next spring when Zocor and Bristol-Myers Squibb's (BMY:NYSE) Pravachol lose U.S. patent protection. Zocor had $5.2 billion in sales last year; Pravachol had $2.6 billion. Lipitor had $10.9 billion in sales last year.
Analysts have been unsure how Lipitor would be affected by upcoming generic competition. If the Lipitor-Zocor test had provided an emphatic win for Pfizer, it might have been easier for them to assess the impact.
"Prescribers are still generally likely to select Lipitor over Zocor based on these data," said Shibutani. "But the study will not yield as strong marketing materials as Pfizer would have hoped." He doesn't own shares, but his firm has had a recent non-investment banking relationship with Pfizer.
"While we would like to see more details, such as overall mortality, we do not think today's results in and of themselves will dramatically change practice patterns, since Lipitor still had a slight benefit," says San Diego's Sagient Research Systems, whose BioMedTracker report analyzes pharmaceuticals.
"While many physicians will still favor Lipitor, price is likely to become an increasing factor for patients and payors" as generic Zocor drugs proliferate, says Sagient, which doesn't own shares and doesn't have a financial relationship.
Doctors are reluctant to switch a patient to another cholesterol drug if the patient's current drug is effective and isn't causing side effects. And it's too early to tell if the Lipitor-Zocor test will answer a few key questions, namely whether doctors will start new patients on generic Zocor vs. brand-name Lipitor and how health maintenance organizations and other managed care companies respond.
Pharmacy benefits manager Express Scripts (ESRX:Nasdaq) didn't wait for the Lipitor-Zocor comparison test.
Last month, the company said it would guide customers to generic Zocor and away from Lipitor next year by removing Lipitor from its preferred list of brand-name drugs. That means patients whose doctors prescribe Lipitor will pay more money out-of-pocket than if Lipitor had remained on this preferred list known as a formulary. If more big pharmacy benefit managers and managed care firms follow Express Scripts' lead, Lipitor's sales will be under pressure.
"We believe managed care will try to use these data to substitute generic Zocor in mid-2006," said James Kelly of Goldman Sachs in a research note Tuesday. Kelly, who has an outperform rating, previously forecast no prescription growth in the U.S. for 2006 and 2007. "Marketing will be tough," says Kelly, who doesn't own shares and whose firm has had an investment banking relationship.
Pfizer's shares closed down 36 cents, or 1.6%, to $21.89, after having dipped as low as $21.70. The stock also was affected by favorable test results involving experimental Pfizer drugs for raising so-called good cholesterol and for helping people stop smoking.
The Lipitor-Zocor test, whose acronym is IDEAL, tested patients whose average age was 62 and who had a previous heart attack. Unlike previous clinical trials involving the statin class of cholesterol drugs, most IDEAL patients were already receiving statins, high-blood pressure drugs known as beta-blockers and aspirin prior to entering the study.
"The majority ... were taking multiple therapies to lower their cardiovascular risk prior to entering the trial," said Dr. Terje Pedersen, head of the Centre for Preventive Medicine at Ulleval University Hospital, Oslo Norway, and the lead investigator for IDEAL.
"These results show us that intensive lipid lowering therapy with Lipitor can significantly reduce a patient's likelihood of experiencing another devastating event such as a heart attack or stroke, or the need for bypass surgery compared to patients taking standard Zocor therapy," said Pedersen in a press release issued by Pfizer.
Pfizer said the average LDL-cholesterol level of patients entering the trial was 122. LDL is often referred to as bad cholesterol. "With intensive Lipitor therapy, patients were able to lower their LDL-cholesterol levels even further to an average of 81," Pfizer said. "This was significantly lower than patients taking Zocor, who had an average LDL-cholesterol level of 104."
Varenicline wirkt auf Gehirn-Rezeptoren, die für die Nikotin-Abhängigkeit verantwortlich sind. Andere Mittel wie Nikotin-Pflaster versorgen den Körper auch dann weiter mit Nikotin, wenn der Raucher aufgehört zu rauchen, mindern daher die Nikotin-Abhängigkeit nicht.
UPDATE: Pfizer's Varenicline Doubled Smoking-Quit Rate
§
11-15-05 02:46 PM EST
By Jennifer Corbett Dooren
Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES
DALLAS -(Dow Jones)- A proposed smoking-cessation drug by Pfizer Inc. (PFE) doubled the chances that people would quit smoking according to three studies presented Tuesday at the American Heart Association's annual meeting in Dallas.
But the studies also showed that many smokers relapsed after about a year, a common problem among people trying to kick the habit.
Two of the studies involved 2,000 patients. They were given either varenicline, the proposed Pfizer drug, Zyban, a GlaxoSmithKline PLC (GSK) drug that is used as a smoking-cessation treatment or a placebo, a fake pill. The patients were treated for 12 weeks with medication and then followed for 40 weeks without treatment.
In both studies, 44% of the varenicline-treated patients quit by the end of 12 weeks compared to 30% in the Zyban group and 18% in the placebo group. After another 40 weeks, one study showed that 22.1% of patients who had received varenicline had continued to abstain from smoking compared to 16.4% in the Zyban group - a finding that didn't reach statistical significance. About 8.4% of patients in the placebo group remained smoke free.
The second study showed similar results, with 23% in the varenicline group and 15% for the Zyban group and 10% in the placebo group who didn't return to smoking. Patients in the study smoked, on average, one pack of cigarettes a day, said Serena Tonstad, the lead researcher and a physician in the preventative cardiology unit at Ulleval University Hospital in Oslo, Norway.
Several previous studies have showed it's difficult for most smokers to quit on the first try and many relapse after trying to quit.
"This isn't a magic bullet," said Raymond Gibbons, AHA's president elect and a cardiologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn. "But if it's approved it will add another option for physicians to try."
Varenicline is a new type of smoking-cessation drug; it is designed to block receptors in the brain that are linked to nicotine addition, which is the key ingredient in cigarettes. It's unlike other treatments such as patches or gums that deliver nicotine without the use of tobacco products.
Erika Froelicher, a nursing professor at the University of California, San Francisco, who critiqued Tonstad's findings in a presentation to doctors said they showed the varenicline was safe and effective and said clinicians "were looking forward to a new drug." In an interview, she said varenicline was about equally effective Zyban but that more options are needed, noting that Zyban shouldn't be used in patients with seizure disorders.
Pfizer said it recently submitted an application to the Food and Drug Administration and European regulators for approval of the drug as a smoking- cessation treatment. If approved, the drug would be marketed under the brand name Champix.
A third study looked at about 1,200 smokers who had successfully quit smoking using varenicline after 12 weeks. They were then split into two groups, one that received varenicline for another 12 weeks and the other a placebo. At six months from the start of the second course of treatment, about 70% of patient who received varenicline had stopped smoking compared to 50% of patients in the placebo group. At about the one-year mark, the continuous abstinence rate was 44% for varenicline compared to 37% in the placebo group.
Tonstad said the results from the third study can't be compared with the other studies because the design was different. Tonstad also said some patients reported mild nausea and about 3% of patients in the study stopped using varenicline because of side effects like insomnia and headaches.
-By Jennifer Corbett Dooren, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9294; jennifer.corbett@dowjones.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
Fiel mir eben so ein. Tage können zu den unterschiedlichsten Dingen gut
sein...
Ich warte noch den Test der 21er Marke ab. Dort haben wir schon 6 Dips,
direkt auf der Linie oder dicht bei. Würde mich schon sehr wundern, wenn
die Marke nicht getestet würde.
Im übrigen fällt auch beim Betrachten des Charts auf, daß es nach so
langer Zeit des Darbens keine saubere Bodenbildung wäre, wenn der Kurs
nun zu aprupt drehen würde. Das wird sicher auch nicht geschehen; denn
nach so einer Story dauert es erfahrungsgemäß lange Zeit, bis die Anleger
wieder richtig Vertrauen gefaßt haben.
Das daraus resultierende Anlegerverhalten führt wiederum zu der Bodenbildung,
die im Sinne eines dauerhaften Kursanstiegs wünschenswert ist. Woran man
sehen kann, daß das Verhalten der Anleger für das Verhalten der Anleger
verantwortlich ist (wenn das nicht ins philosophische lappt...).
Noch eine Bemerkung zur aktuellen Korrektur: die deutsche Schwarz Pharma
hat nun schon die 11. Schwarze Kerze in Folge. Da bin ich sprachlos.