Why Pfizer is special

Article Excerpt

Drug stocks operate under distinct negatives. For example, new drugs take years to win regulatory approval, if ever. As well, they face increasing litigation and aggressive competition from generics. However, we feel Pfizer will continue to overcome these challenges. Its high research spending is letting it replace drugs whose patents are expiring. The company also recently acquired Hospira, an innovative firm that’s successfully developing and selling a new class of drugs called biosimilars. These treatments give Pfizer a new source of growth to offset sales lost to generic drug makers. The stock is up 65.0% for us since we first recommended it in our July 2011 issue, but we feel it still has plenty of gains ahead. PFIZER INC. $33 (New York symbol PFE; Income Portfolio, Manufacturing & Industry sector; Shares outstanding: 6.2 billion; Market cap: $204.6 billion; Price-to-sales ratio: 4.1; Dividend yield: 3.4%; TSINetwork Rating: Above Average; www.pfizer.com) started up in 1942 and is now one of the world’s…