Pfizer's Post Lipitor future

Pfizer the world largest pharmaceutical firm going through a critical period as patent protection of its blockbuster 'LIPITOR' is scheduled to expire in june 2011 Lipitor is chemicaly Atorvastatin a cholesterol lowering drug comes under HMG Coenzyme reductase category.It is one of the most widely studied medicine.
Lipitor is pfizer's biggest product making 11.4 billion US dollar in 2009.Lipitor's revenue is threatened by patient expiration in some markets such as US,Japan and UK and Ranbaxy is going to be a dominent force in us market with its generic lipitor.
Pfizer will lose 2% of its current sales over the next six years dropping to US$47.1 billion,as per reports.According to research by Evaluate pharma Pfizer will remain the no.1 seller of drugs over the next six years despite a drop in sales mainly because of its merger with Wyeth.
The patent expiration will be a huge blow for the company because its lipitor dominated the 20 bn statin market over the years.
Anticipating these set backs back in 2008 pfizer strategically delayed generic competition for its lipitor by some 20 months until november 2011 after threatened by Ranbaxy.
Pfizer will lay off more than 1000 employes at its Groton,Conn,research and development site to cut costs.They also announced that it would shuts its European research hub in Kent,Britian with the loss of around 2400 jobes.
Pfizer said cuts in R&D spending and other measures would help meet earing targets as it faces the expiry of patients on lipitor.
Now they focus on upcomimg products for alzheimer's,cancer and pain to reach blockbuster status.Pfizer has 30 new compounds in development for oncology and 10 in development for Alzheimer's.
One new class of drug candidate is CETP inhibitors but there has already been one major clinical failure with pfizer's torcetrapib failing in third phase.
Pfizer is going to focus on under tapped markets of asia and planning to increase research on asian population.All these to an extent help them to reduce their sales lose in upcoming years.