Pfizer's Short-Term Targets Revealed At Bear Stearns

Pfizer is aiming to improve 1994 operating margins by 1.5%, according to Henry McKinnell, the company's chief financial officer. He added that for both 1995 and 1996 operating margins should improve by 2%. "Achieving that margin target this year seems quite doable, as do our other 1994 goals of double-digit growth in both sales and earnings per share from ongoing operations," he said at the Bear Stearns seventh annual health care conference in New York last month.

Steady increments in operating margins, growing from 16.5% in 1990 to 22.3% last year have been achieved through constant improvement in efficiency since the beginning of the decade, he said. Dr McKinnell added that the roots of the future success of the company lie with its global infrastructure, continuing commitment to R&D, and its strategies for managed care and increased operating leverage.

The company expects to have an unprecedented six compounds in the final phase of clinical development at the end of 1994, compared to a previous high of three in 1993.