"They will be mining [Pfizer's] data to see what they can glean and adapt their clinical trials accordingly," he said. "Science is not about home runs. There are a lot of singles and doubles. This was a long out, but every time you go up against a pitcher, you learn something."
*
(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX)
Top pharmaceuticals
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Cholesterol drugs are the world's biggest-selling prescription medications . . .
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Leading classes of drugs, ranked by global 2005 sales (In billions)
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Cholesterol and triglyceride reducers: $32.4
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Cytostatics (for treatment of tumors): $28.5
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Anti-ulcerants: $26.7
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Antidepressants and mood stabilizers: $19.8
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Antipsychotics: $16.2
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Angiotensin-II inhibitors (high blood pressure): $14.2
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Erythropoietin products (anemia): $12.3
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Calcium antagonists plain (strokes): $11.9
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Anti-epileptics: $11.6
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Oral anti-diabetics: $10.7
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. . . with Pfizer's cholesterol treatment Lipitor the
world's bestselling prescription drug
Leading drugs, ranked by global 2005 sales (In billions)
*--* Drug Primary maker Purpose Sales Lipitor Pfizer Cholesterol $12.9 Plavix Bristol-Myers Squibb, Blood thinner $5.9 Sanofi-Aventis Nexium AstraZeneca Heartburn/ulcers $5.7 Seretide/Advair GlaxoSmithKline Allergies $5.6 Zocor* Merck Cholesterol $5.3 Norvasc Pfizer High blood pressure $5.0 Zyprexa Eli Lilly Schizophrenia $4.7 Risperdal Janssen Schizophrenia $4.0 Ogastro/Prevacid TAP Pharmaceutical Heartburn/ulcers $4.0 Effexor Wyeth Depression $3.8
*--*
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*Zocor lost its patent this year and sales have dropped.
Sources: IMS Health, Times research
