The new facility in Pfizer is designed to allow the Ringaskiddy site to manufacture tailored drugs that will work with your genetic code to beat illnesses.

Another austerity budget this autumn has been signalled by Finance Minister Michael Noonan despite the economic recovery creating jobs faster than expected.

A new class of experimental medicines can dramatically lower cholesterol, raising hopes of a fresh option for people who cannot tolerate or do not get enough help from Lipitor and other statins used for decades.

For 17 years after its approval as a cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor was the best-selling branded medicine in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and a goldmine for Pfizer.

For 17 years after its approval as a cholesterol-lowering drug, Lipitor was the best-selling branded medicine in the history of the pharmaceutical industry and a goldmine for Pfizer.

This week’s announcement of a $100m investment in Pfizer plants in Dublin and Ringaskiddy is a positive move in a sector hit by consolidation and the lapse of patents on big-selling drugs like Viagra and Lipitor, reports Kyran FitzGerald

Irish pharmaceuticals’ dependence on imported raw materials means the impact on GDP of the expiry of key global patents will be far less than has been feared, according to chief economist with Davy Stockbrokers Conall MacCoille.

WIDESPREAD interest is expected in the sale of a stunning Cork harbour waterfront site now fully vacated by Pfizer.

SMART EATING: Kevin Dundon says the secret of good eating is to eat in season and to eat in moderation.

Exports continued to surge in July, reaching €7.9bn, which was a 6% increase on the previous month.

The continuing fallout from high-profile drugs losing patent protection helped drag down export performance during June.

James Reilly, the health minister, has come under further criticism — this time for his failure to tackle the State’s €1bn drugs bill.

A whole generation may have passed between the craze for an irritating, twistable cube and an angst-filled teenage wizard, but both have secured their place among the world’s most popular items.

More jobs are likely to be lost in the Cork region following the confirmation that Pfizer is to reduce its workforce by 177.

Pfizer management will today brief workers in its plants in Little Island and Ringaskiddy on plans for 180 redundancies.

The loss of patent on Lipitor looks set to cost up to 180 jobs at two Pfizer plants in Cork. Linda Johnson examines the success of the lucrative cholesterol lowering drug

Pfizer is to let 180 workers go at its two Cork plants in Little Island and Ringaskiddy, with staff to be briefed on the job losses later this week.

Pfizer has reported first-quarter profit fell 19% after revenue from cholesterol pill Lipitor declined because of generic competition.

Pfizer has reported earnings that beat analysts’ estimates as the company’s non-pharmaceutical units and cost-cutting overcame losses from generic competition to its best-seller Lipitor.

Aspirin is the most commonly prescribed drug under the general medical card scheme (GMS), with 2.5 million scripts written each year at a cost of €5.1m.

DRUGMAKER Pfizer has beaten Wall Street expectations with higher profit and revenue in the third quarter, the last before generic competition starts wiping out sales of Lipitor, the cholesterol blockbuster that has buoyed the company for years.

Pfizer, which earlier this year announced its plans to lay off hundreds of Irish workers and sell off three of its plants here, today reported net income of $2.475bn in the second quarter of the year.

WHEN Pfizer began construction of its first plant in Ringaskiddy in 1969, there was a hope that the facility producing citric acid and gluconate products would be the first of many which would ultimately make Cork and Ireland a global giant in the pharmaceutical trade.

IN Cork, which bears the biggest share of job losses, workers emerging from the affected plants seemed unsurprised at the bad news.

New York: The world’s largest drug company, Pfizer, has handled mergers badly, invented too few drugs and left its reputation in disrepair after two criminal cases.

US FEDERAL prosecutors hit Pfizer with a record-breaking $2.3 billion (€1.61bn) in fines yesterday and called the world’s largest drug maker a repeating corporate cheat for illegal drug promotions that plied doctors with free golf, massages, and resort junkets.

Drugmaker Pfizer has raised its earnings forecast and said profit fell less than analysts expected.

Wall Street closed an erratic session mixed today after an uneven batch of earnings reports made investors more cautious about buying stocks.

The company behind Viagra announced today that it is to close its manufacturing operations in the British town of Kent after 53 years, resulting in the loss of more than 400 jobs.

FAILURE to get approval for a blockbuster drug expected to reap billions is the main factor behind the loss of up to 545 jobs at Pfizer in Cork.

SOME people fear that yesterday’s decision by Pfizer to scale back its Irish operations could prove to be as important as the day when the US pharmaceutical giant decided to set up operations back in 1969.

FEARS are mounting that sweeping job losses are imminent at Pfizer plants across the country.

JOBS at Pfizer’s newest manufacturing plant in Ireland could be lost after the decision by the world’s largest pharmaceutical company to halt production of its most important experimental drug.

Pfizer, the world’s largest pharmaceutical manufacturer, will be forced to shed staff and speed up merger and licensing deals, analysts say, after the company ended trials of a key cholesterol drug.

The world’s largest pharmaceutical firm has axed clinical trials and development for a “flagship” cholesterol drug because of an unexpected number of deaths and cardiovascular problems.

I REFER to your report headlined ‘Counterfeit drugs will kill, expert warns’ (Irish Examiner, October 12).

PFIZER, the world’s biggest drugmaker, said third-quarter earnings plunged 52% on lower sales of its Celebrex painkiller and Neurontin epilepsy drug.

Pfizer Ireland is to make a €100m investment at one of its key Cork plants over the next two years, but shed 25 full-time positions.

THE Irish economy is home to 83 pharmaceutical plants accounting for 17,000 jobs and total exports of €35 billion last year.

Taking very high doses of a drug to push cholesterol to very low levels can help people with heart disease avoid strokes and heart attacks, research has revealed.