Pfizer recently bought out the Exubera stake of co-developer Sanofi-Aventis, creating a higher-margin opportunity.
His Afrezza inhaler is the size of a beeper and uses a faster-dosing insulin molecule than Exubera's.
Pfizer spent billions of dollars and the tenures of two chief executives on Exubera, the first inhaled insulin.
Pfizer spent the tenures of two chief executives and billions of dollars on Exubera, the first inhaled insulin.
But Exubera is symbolic of what seems to have gone wrong at Pfizer.
Shares in Pfizer's partner in Exubera, Nektar Therapeutics, fell 15% in premarket trading.
Rubin remains bullish on recently-approved drugs such as Sutent, used to treat gastrointestinal tumors, and Exubera, developed for diabetes.
"Despite our best efforts, Exubera has failed to gain the acceptance of patients and physicians, " Kindler said in a statement.
One patient in the Exubera trial developed lung scarring, although it's not clear if it was related to the insulin.
Gill says the drug-delivery business is strong enough to make Nektar profitable by 2006 even without the bump from Exubera, however.
The Exubera inhaler is a near-lock to be a sales blockbuster.
Pfizer (nyse: PFE - news - people ) first started talking about the big potential of Exubera in the 1990s.
Exubera, the first inhaled insulin, has finally passed muster with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration after years of delays for Pfizer .
Another problem was the way Pfizer dosed the drug: It was difficult to convert a patient's normal insulin dose into a dosage of Exubera.
One hundred and eighty billion dollars in acquisitions has made Pfizer the biggest drug company in the world--it can take the hit on Exubera.
Pfizer recently bought out the Exubera stake of co-developer Sanofi-Aventis (nyse: SNY - news - people ), creating a higher-margin opportunity.
That prospect became real in January when U.S. and European regulators approved Exubera, the first inhaled form of insulin for use by adult diabetics.
Why didn't Pfizer executives have a better handle on Exubera's chances?
For that Mann blames negativity emanating from the Pfizer Exubera flop.
Pfizer's offering, called Exubera, won FDA approval in 2006 before the company pulled it off the market after patients showed little interest in using its bonglike inhaler.
There were problems with Exubera going back for years, though.
Two years ago Pfizer reported that six patients in its trial--all former smokers--got lung cancer after using Exubera, though the sample was too small to prove it caused the cancer.
Everything changed last fall when Nikki's doctor, Francine Kaufman of Children's Hospital Los Angeles, put her on an experimental device called Exubera, which lets her breathe insulin into her lungs.
More bad news: Earnings plunged 77%, although excluding one-time payments like the Exubera charge, earnings per share were 58 cents, six cents more than the average estimates of Wall Street analysts.
Since Exubera, being co-developed with Pfizer and Aventis (nyse: AVE - news - people ), is expected to be a blockbuster, Nektar's share of sales would be huge if the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approves the drug.
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