Drug Stocks Will Heal Themselves In 2005
December 31, 2004 12:12

First, despite worry on Wall Street, sales of Lilly's biggest moneymaker, the mental health drug Zyprexa, will remain fairly steady. Patients with serious mental illness, which constitutes many of those on Zyprexa, are typically "sticky" patients, meaning they are not easily switched off medicines that are working.

Zyprexa may lose new starts to other drugs that are considered to have fewer nagging side effects, such as weight gain. These include Johnson & Johnson's (nyse: JNJ - news - people ) Risperdal, Bristol-Myers Squibb's Abilify, AstraZeneca's (nyse: AZN - news - people ) Seroquel and Pfizer's Geodon. The fact remains that many doctors consider Zyprexa to be the most potent drug in the class, even if it is also the most expensive. Zyprexa sales are unlikely to be quickly eroded. The Zyprexa franchise is not the growth vehicle for Lilly that it once was, but neither is it going to soon dry up.

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