As Pfizer investigates the marketing of its new HIV drug Maraviroc, Pharmalot has learned that the company's other HIV treatment, Viracept, may also have been improperly marketed. An insider within the company has provided information, and claims that he is being given the treatment that most whistleblowers receive. An excerpt:
"... Pfizer got into the AIDS business in 2000 by acquiring Warner-Lambert, which itself had bought Agouron Pharma and its Viracept, or nelfinivir, a new AIDS med that generated about $420 million in sales in 1998. But Viracept was soon eclipsed by other drugs, such as Kaletra, Sustiva and Reyataz, and by last year, annual sales dwindled. Underscoring the point, Viracept is no longer listed separately in Pfizer financial reports. (Look here for the decline. On the far left, Viracept is the green line that begins at 20 percent and later plummets)."We call it has-been-avir, not nelfinivir" says the sales rep. "They had to do something. And so we were given all sorts of materials to boost business. You know, a sales rep just doesn't wake up one morning and say "˜I'll use these unapproved studies or slides or whatever.' It has to come from somewhere. And we were told that our performance was based on whether we were able to use that material in the field. But it violates Pfizer's own policy. That's why I reported these things."...
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