Upfront

J&J sees Pfizer deal breaking even a year earlier

New Brunswick, New Jersey

Johnson & Johnson (J&J) said that it expects its $16.6 billion acquisition of Pfizer Consumer Health to break even or increase earnings modestly by 2009, a year earlier than previously expected. Colleen Goggins, Worldwide Chairwoman of J&J's Consumer Group, said that the integration of Pfizer Consumer Health is expected to result in cost savings of $500 million to $600 million in 2009. The acquisition of the Pfizer unit, which closed in late 2006, brought J&J big brand names, which Goggins said that J&J can expand using its extensive global infrastructure. Some of the brands include Listerine mouthwash, Nicorette stop-smoking chewing gum, and over-the-counter allergy medication Zyrtec.

Separately, J&J said that it plans to file in 2010 for US approval of Cypher Elite, an improved version of its Cypher drug-eluting stent already on the US market. It said that it will seek European and US approvals for its Nevo Sirolimus-eluting heart stent in 2009 and 2011, respectively. "We have begun clinical trials on Nevo," said Caruso, noting that it is using Sirolimus, which is the drug used on its existing stent, Cypher, on the stent platform it acquired when it bought Conor Medsystems last year. "It's also a redesign of the stent itself," he added.

J&J, whose stent sales fell some 34 percent in 2007, projected only one percent compound annual growth for all drug-eluting stents worldwide between 2007 and 2012. The company said that the total market for these devices, which prop open diseased arteries and deliver medication to keep them clear, will be $4 billion by 2012. Using Conor's reservoir stent technology, the company can use more than a single drug on a stent, including antiplatelet agents to mitigate the risk of developing blood clots.