Industry insiders fear a planned marketing push for Exubera, fast becoming the US giant’s highest-profile disappointment, will be in vain.
Analysts were forecasting blockbuster annual sales of $2bn (£1.01bn, E1.49bn) for the insulin spray. It delivered just $4m in the second quarter of 2007 – the first time Pfizer disclosed sales of the product.
In July, Pfizer launched a massive television and print ad campaign in the US to jump-start sales. Reducing the number of inhalers produced is a clear indication management are unsure their next campaign will have much impact on sales.
The cutbacks are spelt out in a report filed with the US Securities and Exchange Commission by West Pharmaceutical Services, the American drug technology firm that makes about 60% of the device.
It said: “We expect Pfizer’s high inventory levels and slower-than-expected demand will affect our fourth-quarter 2007 and full-year 2008 sales levels. In coordination with our customer, Nektar, we have reduced production to one shift per day at our dedicated facility beginning in the third quarter of 2007.”
Nektar is the biotech company with which Pfizer developed Exubera. Jim Reddoch, an analyst for Friedman Billings Ramsey Group, the American investment bank, estimates Pfizer will pay Nektar $122m this year to manufacture the inhaler.
Exubera was expected to be popular as patients could spray insulin into their mouths rather than inject it. However, as it was being developed, insulin injection “pens” made by rivals such as Novo Nordisk, the Danish diabetes specialist, became smaller.
