Pfizer Watchers Try To Read New CEO's Next Moves

Pfizer, Inc.,'s abrupt management shake-up, announced Dec. 5, comes almost a year to the day its key drug Lipitor goes off patent. Whether the timing of the changes was a coincidence or the result of accumulating pressures, the patent expiration date of November 2011 is a marker for new CEO Ian Read and portends additional changes at the world's largest drug manufacturer.