The pharma world can be cutthroat as firms jockey for position with competing drugs. But even in that context, Pfizer’s decision to announce a late-November launch of its competing version of Johnson & Johnson’s best-selling drug Remicade the afternoon before J&J released its third-quarter earnings seems a bit cold.
Pfizer’s announcement cast a shadow on another blockbuster quarter from J&J, whose shares fell 2.7 percent on Tuesday. But J&J isn’t going to let Remicade’s $6.5 billion in sales slip gently into the good night. And it’s better positioned than just about any other company to weather such a storm.
