Pfizer Followers Aren't Impressed

Arnold, like Boris, says Pfizer may have to re-enter the acquisition game to help fill what she calls the future "Lipitor gap." Boris says Pfizer may need "a larger strategically driven acquisition," although he didn't suggest a target or a price.

Arnold says Pfizer's "next priority should be to buy future growth of lower risk" to offset Lipitor's patent expiration. She also didn't recommend a target.

In recent years, Pfizer has signed many licensing and product-collaboration deals, as well as made some smaller acquisitions. The company's management says they're "aggressively pursuing" deals that make strategic sense.

The acquisitions of Warner-Lambert and Pharmacia are what got Pfizer where it is today -- big products such as Lipitor and the arthritis drug Celebrex, but also a big staff that Pfizer has been trimming for several years.

From a peak of 122,000 employees at the end of 2003, Pfizer's payroll probably will be about 90,000 by 2008, assuming that company doesn't decide that the best way to fill the Lipitor gap is to make another megadeal.