Wyeth rated top pharmaceutical company by Wall Street

The Wall Street Journal 'Patent Scorecard' has ranked Wyeth first among 35 global pharmaceutical companies.

Wyeth outperformed the industry average by more than two fold on the Research Intensity measure. The Scorecard also compares stock performance for the leading company compared with the industry.

In FY06, Wyeth spent approximately USD 3.1bn on R&D with programmes focused on small molecules, vaccines and biotechnology.

The company is exploring more than 60 new therapies for diabetes, breast cancer, multiple sclerosis, HIV and schizophrenia. It is also the only major pharmaceutical company exploring three technical platforms for Alzheimer's disease therapeutics: small molecules, biotechnology proteins and vaccines.

The US-based pharmaceutical firm was evaluated on patent-based intellectual property, as measured by indicators including patents granted; quality of patents; Science Strength, or the degree to which a company's patent portfolio is linked to core science; Research Intensity, a comparative measure of the level of basic research; and Innovation Cycle Time, or the speed at which research results in patent assets.

Since Wyeth adopted an enhanced research and development productivity model in 2001, it has advanced 75 new molecular entities from discovery research into development, including 15 in 2006 alone; filed more than 60 investigational new drug applications, including 12 in 2006; and filed four major New Drug Applications in 2006.