Alex Berenson, the New York Times business reporter who covers the pharmaceutical industry, has a new article on how Pfizer’s Exubera inhaled insulin sales are “lagging.”

The analysis discovered that many Wall Street analysts have downgraded their earnings estimates for Pfizer’s diabetes sales.

This blog hazards a guess that some of those analysts have read the research and posts here, discovering that quite a few doctors, insurers, and diabetics do not support Exubera use.

Berenson cites a February 2007 study by Citigroup’s drug industry analyst team which found that after surveying some 35 doctors, “more than half said they were concerned about Exubera’s safety. They were also concerned about its price and the bulkiness of the Exubera inhaler.”

Last July, this blog reported that Harvard Pilgrim’s Health Care’s pharmacy director was shocked that insurers would cover Exubera’s increased cost.

“I don’t get who the target market is — people with unlimited drug coverage who like gadgets?,” said Dr. Neil Minkoff, the insurer’s pharmacy director.

The two largest health insurance companies in the country, Wellpoint (which manages many Blue Cross / Blue Shield plans) and Minnesota-based UnitedHealthcare, list “Exubera in the third tier of their drug formularies. Co-pays at that level run $40 to $50 per prescription at United-Healthcare.”

Berenson also notes that sales of Type-2 diabetes drugs like Byetta and Januvia have grown rapidly compared to Pfizer’s Exubera sales