[Ip-health] Top drug profitability - report from Pharmalot/Sanford Bernstein

[robert weissman]

  http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/which-drugs-have-the-biggest-pre-tax-mar=
gins/



  Which Drugs Have The Biggest Pre-Tax Margins?
  <http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/which-drugs-have-the-biggest-pre-tax-ma=
rgins/>


By Ed Silverman // January 5th, 2010 <http://www.pharmalot.com/2010/01/05/>
Pharmalot

In an attempt to dissect the profitability of big drugs - and gauge
their contribution to a drugmaker=92s overall profit and loss - Sanford
Bernstein analyst Tim Anderson recently crunched some numbers showing,
among other things, that roughly 30 of the 52 drugs he examined have
pretax margins that are 70 percent or higher. This compares to the
average drug company pretax margin of about 32 percent.

His point: a big drug may only account for 10 percent of a company=92s
total sales, but its contribution to pretax profits could be twice as
large. And as patent cliffs loom, this is important. Here are the drugs
offering the biggest payback:

1 - Effexor (Pfizer) 87 percent
2 - Arimidex (AstraZeneca) 85 percent
3 - Femara (Novartis) 84 percent
4 - Detrol (Pfizer) 84 percent
5 - Gemzar (Lilly) 84 percent
6 - Xeloda (Roche) 82 percent
7 - Lipitor (Pfizer) 82 percent
8 - Zometa (Novartis) 81 percent
9 - Plavix (Bristol-Myers/Sanofi-Aventis) 81 percent*
10 - Taxotere (Sanofi-Aventis) 80 percent

* - for the total brand, ignoring profit splits

Source: Sanford Bernstein