Exubera becoming a big disappointment for Pfizer

With patients put off by Exubera's difficult dosing device, insurers reluctant to foot the bill and doctors concerned about its long-term impact on patients' health, sales of Pfizer's inhaled-insulin diabetes therapy have fallen dramatically behind initial projections. Analysts are now dubbing the would-be blockbuster as a high-profile failure, with estimates of potential sales plunging from $800 million to a little more than $300 million. Despite an intense marketing campaign, Exubera accounts for only one out of every 500 prescriptions for insulin. And skeptics abound that Exubera will come anywhere close to meeting Pfizer's ambitious hopes. That would amount to an enormous problem for Pfizer, which has been scrambling to develop new blockbuster medications.

- read The New York Times article on Exubera

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