Pfizer plans dramatic increase in new cancer drugs

Anyone looking for a clue where Pfizer will be spending its R&D money would do well to check out some remarks made yesterday by Andreas Penk, the regional chief of Pfizer's European cancer business. Penk expects a ten-fold increase in cancer revenue by 2018, a huge increase from the $2.5 billion mark the pharma company posted last year.

"At the moment we're about in seventh place in oncology," said Penk. "We want to be in the top three in 2018. During this time we want to increase our sales by about 10 times."

In order to get there, Pfizer will have to invest heavily in its oncology pipeline. Bloomberg notes that a quarter of the 100 drugs Pfizer has in human clinical trials is devoted to new cancer therapies. But the potential rewards are immense. Cancer drugs raked in $48.2 billion in sales last year, according to IMS Health, making it the world's leading drug category.

- check out the report from Bloomberg

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