Pfizer plans more off-shoring and outsourcing

More on the off-shoring trend...previous post here

Pfizer is looking to Asia for both R&D and manufacturing outsourcing and to help it cut costs in a bid to mitigate the effects of patent expiries and competition from generic drugs.

Pfizer announced plans to increase its R&D presence in Asia at its Hong Kong investor meeting on Friday, while saying it is also look to double the amount of manufacturing outsourcing to 30 per cent.

The pharma giant has struggled in the past year and the high profile clinical trial failure of its cholesterol-lowering drug Torcetrapib has only matters worse.

Torcetrapib would have enabled Pfizer to defend the patents its cholesterol drug Lipitor (atorvastatin) that are due to expire in 2011, potentially creating a $13bn hole in the company's revenues.

In addition, Pfizer's pipeline has been criticised from many quarters, with even the company's new president of global R&D stating "I'm the first to admit [the drug pipeline] is not as rich as I'd like it to be."

To help combat this Pfizer will look to bolster its Asian R&D, targeting China, India, Japan and South Korea.

New sites in these areas would help the company bolster its share of the Asian pharmaceutical market which is predicted to grow to $200bn by 2017.

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