But Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb, one with a new boss and the other still looking, had better be taking notes.
Merck, Eli Lilly, Pfizer and Bristol-Myers Squibb now are yield stocks with just some promise of financial engineering like stock buybacks and dispositions of stagnant divisions.
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Pfizer and partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. will promote it jointly, noting its advantages over two rival drugs on the market already, Xarelto and Pradaxa.
In cholesterol-lowering drugs, one of the biggest categories, generic versions of Lipitor, Zocor, and Pravachol, once sold by Pfizer, Merck, and Bristol-Myers Squibb, now account for 64% of all cholesterol drug sales.
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Already companies like Pfizer, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb are quietly drawing new battle lines.
These drugs, the statins, are the top sellers for Pfizer , Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb .
However, it's very existence shows how heart drugs, once the province of Pfizer, Merck and Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people ), are increasingly being developed at small biotechs like Esperion or Alpharetta, Ga.
So far, Zetia is being used both alone and in combination with a mix of other cholesterol drugs, including Zocor, Pfizer's Lipitor and Bristol-Myers Squibb 's (nyse: BMY - news - people ) Pravachol.
Pfizer's drug tremelimumab and Bristol-Myers Squibb's ipilimumab are antibodies to a protein called CTLA-4 (cytotoxic T-lymphocyte antigen-4) that acts as an emergency brake to prevent killer T cells from attacking healthy tissue.
But in February a panel convened by the American Diabetes Association published a paper saying that Zyprexa is far more likely than peers such as Geodon, from Pfizer, and Abilify, from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Otsuka, to cause weight gain, diabetes and high cholesterol.
Big drug companies, including Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Sanofi-Aventis, are doggedly pursuing drugs that aim to boost the immune system to fight cancer.
The drugs, in testing at Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb and elsewhere, may improve upon medicine's dismal track record of treating the most deadly form of skin cancer.
Big pharmaceutical companies like Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Novartis have been knowingly veering away from mass-market drugs.
Another related drug, called apixaban from Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer, might have less bleeding when clinical trial results read out next year.
If Xarelto is not approved to prevent strokes in patients with atrial fibrillation, a heart rhythm disorder, Bristol-Myers Squibb and Pfizer could benefit if their drug, Eliquis, does reach the market.
The market for cholesterol drugs is expected to continue to grow, even though cholesterol medicines made by Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people), Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people) and Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people)are already some of the world's most lucrative drugs.
In the first, HERE, Smith explains why amyloid drugs from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Pfizer, and others may be dangerous.
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Pfizer, Eli Lilly, Bristol-Myers Squibb, AstraZeneca and others are testing drugs that would reduce inflammation indirectly by raising the "good" HDL cholesterol that helps the body pump fat out of the arteries.
Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY) and Pfizer ( PFE) announced over the weekend positive results in a Phase 3 trial that compared Elquis to warfarin for the prevention of stroke or systemic embolism in patients with atrial fibrillation and at least one risk factor for stroke.
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That drug wasn't even the leader in the cholesterol-fighting pack, led by Merck (nyse: MRK - news - people), Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people), and Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people).
He said Pfizer will soon launch two new medicines, rheumatoid arthritis treatment Xeljanz and with partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
Read told analysts during a conference call that Pfizer will soon launch two new medicines, rheumatoid arthritis treatment Xeljanz and with partner Bristol-Myers Squibb Co.
The drugs, in testing at Pfizer, Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people ) and elsewhere, may improve upon medicine's dismal track record of treating the most deadly form of skin cancer.
In the past four years, AstraZeneca ( AZN), Pfizer ( PFE), Eli Lilly ( LLY), Bristol-Myers Squibb ( BMY) and Forest Labs ( FRX) have all settled federal charges of marketing psychoactive drugs off-label, at a cost running into hundreds of millions.
Meanwhile, Zyprexa, the top seller for giant Eli Lilly, has seen its annual sales drop slowly in recent years as competitors such as Pfizer 's (nyse: PFE - news - people ) Geodon and Abilify, from Bristol-Myers Squibb (nyse: BMY - news - people ), have boasted that they cause less weight gain.
Helped by recent news of a weak economy and record low interest rates, the stocks of major pharmaceutical companies like Abbott Labs (NYSE:ABT), Lilly Eli (NYSE:LLY), Pfizer (NYSE:PFE), Merck (NYSE:MRK), and Bristol Myers Squibb traded near 52-week highs this morning.
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