Pfizer to Extend, Expand Marketing Collaboration with Warner-Lambert

Pfizer Inc. (New York) and Warner-Lambert Co. (Morris Plains, NJ) have signed a letter of intent to extend and expand their co-promotion of the cholesterol-lowering agent Lipitor (atorvastatin calcium). As part of the expanded collaboration, the companies will also co-promote Pfizer's migraine drug Relpax (eletriptan). The companies expect to sign final agreements for both Lipitor and Relpax later this year.

Lipitor, an HMG-coA reductase inhibitor, or statin, is the most prescribed cholesterol-lowering agent in the US. Under the terms of the agreement, the companies will extend their co-promotion of the drug, which began in 1997, for a total of ten years. The companies will also expand the collaboration to explore potential Lipitor line extensions, product combinations, and other areas of mutual interest, including the possible development of a novel combination product that contains the cholesterol-lowering and anti-hypertensive medications in Lipitor and Norvasc (amlodipine besylate).

Relpax, a 5-HT 1d agonist, is a therapy for the treatment of acute migraine headaches. Terms of the agreement call for Warner-Lambert and Pfizer to share equally in profits, promotional expenses, and the cost of long-term research and development studies for Relpax for ten years. Further modifications will be made to the existing marketing arrangements to provide additional benefits to Warner-Lambert that will balance their return from Relpax with further potential collaborations for Pfizer products or modifications to the companies' other arrangements.

The companies also plan to develop a single product that treats both lipid disorders and hypertension. The new product will combine the active ingredients of Lipitor, discovered and developed by Parke-Davis, the pharmaceutical division of Warner-Lambert; and Norvasc, discovered and developed by Pfizer. Norvasc is a once-a-day calcium channel blocker for the treatment of angina and hypertension.

Warner-Lambert is a pharmaceutical company devoted to discovering, developing, manufacturing, and marketing pharmaceutical, consumer health care, and confectionery products.

Pfizer Inc. is a research-based pharmaceutical company that discovers, develops, manufactures, and markets medicines for humans and animals.

For more information: William C. Steere Jr., CEO, Pfizer Inc., 235 E. 42nd St., New York, NY 10017-5755. Tel: 212-573-2323. Fax: 212-573-7851.