Pfizer battles dwindling Lipitor sales with hike in dividend, stock buy-back plan

Pfizer Inc, the world's largest drug-maker, battling dwindling sales of its money-spinning, cholesterol-lowering Lipitor, following loss of US market exclusivity after patent expiry in November, is wooing shareholders with higher dividends and a share buy-back plan.

The company has raised its quarterly dividend to 22 cents from 20 cents in the previous quarters, and expanded its shares buyback plan by up to $10 billion. Pfizer lost market exclusivity in the US for Lipitor on 30 November, and within a week lost 15 per cent market share to generics.

Analysts expect generic-makers – including India's Ranbaxy Laboratories – to capture 60 per cent of the Lipitor market in the US over the next six months. Lipitor, the most popular drug in history, has brought Pfizer more than $80 billion in revenue in more than a decade.

However, unlike the industry trend – where big pharma dumps a drug once it goes off-patent – Pfizer has slashed the price of Lipitor, bringing it at par with generic drugs and is trying to retain its hold.

Pfizer has now joined hands with rival Bristol-Myers, also based in New York, in developing and selling Eliquis (or apixaban), a new drug to be used in the prevention of strokes and systemic embolism in patients with irregular heartbeats. The blood-thinner is expected to be yet another blockbuster drug (any drug with annual sales of $1 billion or more is considered to be a blockbuster).

The US Food and Drug Administration last month gave a priority review for the anti-clotting drug and aims to take a final decision on its approval by the end of March.