“The Middle East is becoming one of our key emerging markets,” Jean-Michel Halfon, head of Pfizer’s emerging markets unit, said in an interview in Dubai. “This is a market where we should see double-digit growth and where Pfizer should be able to exceed $1 billion in sales.”
Pfizer plans to add at least $3 billion in annual revenue from sales in developing countries by 2012. It is among major pharmaceutical companies seeking increased sales in emerging countries such as China as revenue in mature markets in the U.S. and Europe sags.
The New York-based company is looking to make acquisitions “in the more established markets such as Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the rest of the Gulf,” Guy Lallemand, Pfizer’s regional president for Africa & Middle East, said in an interview. “We are not looking for a specific country, we would be looking for a regional opportunity.”
Sales this year in the Middle East are expected to be about $500 million and the company is forecasting between 8 percent and 10 percent annual growth, Lallemand said. Iraq, Iran and Syria are among markets where Pfizer is looking to expand its business, he added.
Acquisition
Pfizer said Jan. 26 it would pay $33 plus 0.985 of a Pfizer share for each share of Wyeth, the world’s seventh largest drugmaker by assets. The acquisition, valued at more than $60 billion, would give Pfizer the pneumonia vaccine Prevnar and the depression pill Effexor to offset some of the $12 billion in sales it will begin losing in 2011 when the cholesterol pill Lipitor faces generic competition.
Wyeth shareholders are scheduled to vote on the merger on July 20, according to court filings.
Respect for patents, openness toward clinical trials and rapid review of products in the Gulf are encouraging Pfizer’s expansion in the region, Lallemand said.
“They are not seeking to redo and reproduce work done in Europe and the United States,” he said.