According to Michael Krensavage, a pharmaceutical equity analyst at Raymond James Financial, Inc. (NYSE:RJF), the launch of Exubera inhaled insulin for diabetics “has been one of the most spectular flops in the pharmaceutical industry.”

Krensavage made this analysis when interviewed about Pfizer, Inc.’s (NYSE:PFE) difficulty in launching and maintaining profitable new drugs in a highly competitive market.  “No matter how you look at it,” Krensavage concluded, Pfizer’s drug research and development efforts have yielded “a disappointing pipeline.”
Pfizer’s 8K report to shareholders disclosed Exubera’s continued market failure. “Sales of Exubera continue to be disappointing, with $4 million of worldwide revenues in the second quarter of 2007.”
Generating only $4 million in revenue on a diabetes drug for which Pfizer paid Sanofi-Aventis $1.3 billion in January 2006 is an abysmal failure, there may still be a silver-lining for diabetics.

By sticking to proven diabetes medications that do not have unknown pulmonary and related risks for diabetics that are the subject of long-term FDA-mandated drug safety studies (as a condition of the drug’s approval), endocrinologists appear likely to give their patients trusted choices for managing their care.

Even given reported the Avandia heart attack risks for Type 2 diabetics, Pfizer doesn’t seem to have convinced endocrinologists that Exubera is a better diabetes drug.

Exubera inhaled insulin drugmaker Pfizer, Inc. (NYSE:PFE) is expected to release the results of 2 scientific studies involving the diabetes drug at the American Diabetes Assocaition’s Scientific Sessions annual conference in Chicago this week.

The company and, researchers that it supports, are expected to present research findings involving ’stop-and-go’ Exubera usage over a 2-year period involving Type 1 and Type 2 diabetics. The findings concern pulmonary risks and safety issues (i.e., lung function) that remain an ongoing concern of many doctors and diabetics regarding the inhaled insulin.

It will be interesting to see how doctors view the results that Pfizer presents at the ADA sessions, particularly when Dr. John Buse, the orginzation’s president-elect, stated that he sees his job as “talk[ing] people out of (using)” Exubera.

Pfizer’s Exubera sales remain lackluster according to news reports and numerous online posts from anonymous drug sales reps from the company.

The ADA Scientific Sessions are supported, in part, by a grant from the embattled maker of Avandia, the diabetes drug from GlaxoSmithKline that the FDA ordered to carr a ‘black-box warning’ due to widely reported excessive risks of heart attacks and related safety and personal injury issues.

Since the New England Journal of Medicine published an article warning about Avandia heart attack risks for Type 2 diabetics on the GlaxoSmithKline rosiglitazone class of medicine, it is likely that a fair number of diabetics may be switching off the GlaxoSmithKline diabetes drug.
The FDA also announced that diabetics using Avandia haave a 43-percent greater risks of heart attack risks than those not taking it.

This raises an important question: are the dangers of using Avandia less than, equal to, or greater than the risks of using Exubera inhaled insulin?

Could Avandia and Exubera both become like Vioxx and other COX-2 inhibitors:  Drugs  approved by the FDA that were found to be too risky for patients to use safely?
It’s still too early to know whether Exubera sales will be benefit from potential Avandia risks.