Pfizer Inc

Watching Alzheimer's disease steal away the memory, talents and very selves of its victims is hard enough for the people who love them. Now, a new pill formulated by a respected pharmaceutical company and approved by the Food and Drug Administration will do little to help most patients and will bring misery to some, say two medical investigators. The drug, Aricept 23 mg, is no more effective on the whole than the disappointing ones already on the market - but is more likely to cause gastrointestinal problems, wrote Drs. Steven Woloshin and Lisa Schwartz of Dartmouth Medical College in an article published Thursday in the medical journal BMJ. The new formulation was devised to serve commercial objectives, they say, and was approved despite a poor showing in company-sponsored tests.

First came the frenzy for iPhones and iPads. Now there's a scramble for iBonds. Apple Inc. sold $17 billion in bonds Tuesday, a gargantuan deal that ranked as the largest in global corporate history. And even though the securities are paying microscopically low interest, investors tripped over themselves to buy in. In the financial equivalent of a line stretching around the block, investors reportedly submitted more than $50 billion in requests, or more than three times the amount available.

In the nation's largest-ever trademark infringement award, a Los Angeles jury Tuesday ordered pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. to pay a British company $143 million for stealing the Trovan name to market its controversial antibiotic. Legal experts called the verdict "staggering," saying it raises the stakes for companies that deliberately infringe other companies' trademarks. Jurors said Pfizer, the second-largest U.S.

Just like its popular Duncan Hines cake mixes, packaged foods company Pinnacle Foods Inc. is on the rise after raising $580 million in an initial public offering. The company - which owns popular brands such as Birds Eye, Aunt Jemima, Log Cabin, Mrs. Butterworth's and Hungry-Man - made its debut on the New York Stock Exchange under the symbol PF. Wednesday night, the Parsippany, N.J., business sold 29 million shares for $20 apiece - at the top end of its suggested $18-to-$20 range.

Hoping to improve sales of its Viagra drug, Pfizer Inc. has hired former presidential contender Bob Dole for a television advertising campaign to raise awareness about impotence. Dole, a former Senate majority leader, will participate in a series of public service activities, including speaking engagements and educational advertising that focus on impotence and men's health in general, the company said.

Officials in Nigeria have brought criminal charges against pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Inc. in connection with the deaths of children who received an unapproved drug for meningitis. Authorities in Kano, the country's largest state, filed eight charges this month related to the 1996 clinical trial, including criminal conspiracy and voluntarily causing grievous harm. They also filed a suit seeking more than $2 billion in damages and restitution from Pfizer.

First came the frenzy for iPhones and iPads. Now there's a scramble for iBonds. Apple Inc. sold $17 billion in bonds Tuesday, a gargantuan deal that ranked as the largest in global corporate history. And even though the securities are paying microscopically low interest, investors tripped over themselves to buy in. In the financial equivalent of a line stretching around the block, investors reportedly submitted more than $50 billion in requests, or more than three times the amount available.

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug maker, said it bought a research center in La Jolla for $372 million in cash, gaining control of a site it had leased in the biotechnology hub.

Government scientists are investigating whether a prescription drug by Pfizer Inc. used to help smokers quit cigarettes also increases suicidal thoughts and violent behavior. The Food and Drug Administration said it had received reports of mood disorders and erratic behavior among patients taking Chantix. The FDA advised doctors to closely monitor patients taking Chantix for behavior changes.

No. 1 drug maker Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it was buying No. 12 Wyeth for $68 billion in a deal that would quickly boost Pfizer's revenue and profit and transform it overnight into a more diversified company less reliant on its dwindling drug pipeline.

Pfizer Inc. would pay about $68 billion to acquire Wyeth in a bid reviewed Sunday by boards for the two drug companies, according to people familiar with the talks. The New York Times and the Wall Street Journal reported that the deal could be announced before the markets open today. Wyeth shareholders would get $50.19, including $33 in cash and 0.985 Pfizer shares, one source said. That's a 29% premium on Wyeth's price Thursday, before word of the talks became public.

Pfizer Inc., the world's biggest drug maker, said profit tripled as lower costs from job cuts and higher international sales offset declining U.S. demand for its cholesterol pill Lipitor and anti-smoking drug Chantix. Sales in the U.S. fell 15% after patients continued to switch from Lipitor, the world's best-selling drug, to generic copies of Merck & Co.'s cholesterol pill Zocor, New York-based Pfizer said. Doctors also shunned Chantix after U.S. regulators cautioned it might be linked to suicides.

Pfizer Inc. is shifting its drug research focus to diseases that have high potential for big profits and for treatment improvements in such fields as cancer and Alzheimer's disease. The world's biggest drug maker also is ending new research on conditions including obesity and heart disease, but research on drugs already in late-stage human testing will continue, spokeswoman Liz Power said Tuesday.

Pfizer Inc. said Monday that it was voluntarily withdrawing advertising for its Lipitor cholesterol drug featuring Robert Jarvik, inventor of the Jarvik artificial heart, because its ads led to "misimpressions." The ads involving Jarvik had come under scrutiny, including from a House committee as part of an investigation into celebrity endorsements of prescription medicines.

A judge in Nigeria ordered the arrest of three executives of New York-based drug company Pfizer Inc., saying they failed to honor an order to appear in court over a $2-billion suit the company is facing for a 1996 drug trial. Judge Shehu Atiku, sitting in Kano, Nigeria, said the executives of the Pfizer subsidiary in Nigeria had not heeded a Nov. 6 ruling that they should appear in court.

Pfizer Inc. and Procter & Gamble Co. have scrapped plans to co-develop an osteoporosis drug after failing to agree on final commercial terms. Last September, the companies agreed to jointly develop Procter & Gamble's prescription drug, Risedronate, to treat osteoporosis. The companies said late Tuesday they were unable to reach final commercial terms, but didn't elaborate.

Pfizer Inc. said its experimental combination therapy for malaria was about three times as effective as the most commonly used drug for the deadly parasitic disease. The treatment combined the standard therapy, chloroquine, with Pfizer's antibiotic Zithromax. Pfizer said it would test the combination treatment in larger, late-stage clinical trials.

Hundreds of patients who allege they or their loved ones suffered heart attacks and strokes after taking pain medication Celebrex might be dropped from a massive lawsuit against drug maker Pfizer Inc. in light of a federal judge's ruling. U.S. District Judge Charles R.

Government scientists are investigating whether a prescription drug by Pfizer Inc. used to help smokers quit cigarettes also increases suicidal thoughts and violent behavior. The Food and Drug Administration said it had received reports of mood disorders and erratic behavior among patients taking Chantix. The FDA advised doctors to closely monitor patients taking Chantix for behavior changes.