Torcetrapib: Biomarker for the Big Pharma Business Model

The pharmaceutical world is considering the unthinkable: is Pfizer Inc. vulnerable? Investors have fled the stock; it faces huge patent challenges; its most important franchise—cholesterol-reduction—is facing a concerted challenge from a fast-growing new combination product, simvastatin/ezetimibe (Vytorin) from Schering-Plough Corp. and Merck & Co. Inc. Most of its recent drug launches have sputtered. And analysts don't see many new big drugs in its pipeline.

Except torcetrapib—perhaps the most important clinical-stage project in the industry because it is designed to replace the industry's most important product, the $11 billion atorvastatin (Lipitor). If it fails, Pfizer becomes, at best, an also-ran—even perhaps, takeover material for a much smaller company, or group of them