A new report from CNN/Money.com alleges that Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE) sales of Exubera inhaled insulin are so weak that figures of the new diabetes drug’s sales haven’t been reported.

Reporter Aaron Smith suggest Pfizer is not meeting the drugmaker’s strong sales projections for inhaled insulin that Pfizer’s Vice Chairman David Shedlarz made at the UBS AG (NYSE:UBS) Global Life Sciences Conference in September. He told conference attendees that Exubera inhaled insulin remains an “important source of revenue growth” for Pfizer.

CNN/Money.com reporter Aaron Smith says that:

Pfizer says sales have been slow because physicians have to be trained to use the device, but that it plans to ramp up its roll-out in January, but the impact of that remains to be seen.

That question is certainly being watched closely by Pfizer and Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR), the co-developer of the inhaled insulin.

A federal judge in Manhattan rejected Novo-Nordisk’s attempt to halt Pfizer’s sales of Exubera inhaled insulin, pending resolution of the drug companies’ ongoing patent litigation.

Perhap’s the most noteworthy factor cited by U.S. District Judge Leonard Sand’s in his court decision was how an injunction would affect public interest:

Enjoining the release of a new and less invasive treatment for diabetes would quite obviously be contrary to the public interest, particularly in the interval between now and trial.

Both pharmaceutical companies jostled for positive spin following the decision.

Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE) promptly issued a press release about the ruling, followed by another release from Exubera co-developer Nektar Therapeutics (NASDAQ:NKTR). Both were terse.
Novo-Nordisk A/S (NYSE: NOVO), however, seemed to suggest that Judge Sand’s ruling was just a blip in its underlying patent lawsuit against Pfizer:

Novo Nordisk does not…regard the ruling as impairing the strength of our underlying case, and also notes that the ruling involves only one of the five patents at issue in the case.

Readers can view copies of Novo’s lawsuit and Pfizer’s answer in the patent litigation over inhaled insulin.