Pfizer sells Viagra on its website in a drug industry first

Pfizer is testing the online-sales waters with a new program to sell Viagra directly to consumers. It's a natural choice: Makers of erectile dysfunction drugs have been working on packaging and formulation changes to make it easier--and more discreet--for men to use them. This new channel is about as discreet as you can get for a prescription drug. As the Associated Press notes, men don't even have to face a pharmacist.

It's not the first time a drugmaker has experimented with direct sales, but it's the first still-on-patent drug to be distributed this way. Pfizer itself tested a program it called Lipitor For You, which allowed brand-loyal patients to enroll online and receive the newly off-patent cholesterol drug directly from a specialty pharmacy. The company phased that program out last spring.

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Is GlaxoSmithKline prepping older products for spinoff? New division announced along with profits drop, sales slide

GlaxoSmithKline's waiting game continues. The U.K.-based drugmaker posted disappointing profits for the first quarter as sales took a backwards step, partly because of revenue lost in the sale of over-the-counter products. Now, the company is essentially in a holding pattern, counting on new drug approvals this year to reverse its long sales slide. So, analysts' ears pricked up when CEO Andrew Witty said it would sequester some older drug brands in a new division by next January. Is a spin-off coming?

GSK is already selling off two drink brands, saying they no longer fit with its global consumer-health aspirations. It unloaded a set of underperforming over-the-counter products last year. Creating a new, global established products business--comprising such big-name drugs as the heartburn remedies Tagamet and Zantac, and the migraine fighter Imitrex--of course raises the question of a spin-off, particularly because investors have responded so strongly to Pfizer's  recent slim-down efforts, including an IPO for its animal health business Zoetis. The sales of those to-be-gathered established products last year amounted to about £3 billion. "[L]ooks like a precursor to a spin-off to us," Jefferies analysts said (as quoted by Reuters).

Which Big Biotechs are hitting the gas pedal on R&D spending?

FiercePharma | By John Carroll 

The R&D numbers for the top 10 biotechs may only amount to a fraction of what you'll find in Big Pharma. But unlike the giants, which are trying to keep a lid on multibillion-dollar budgets, you'll find a much faster crowd when you turn your gaze to the biotechs. All 10 reported increases in their research spending for last year. And a few of them slammed their foot on the gas pedal.

Altogether the top 10 biotechs spent $11.8 billion on R&D in 2012, according to our research, a hefty 15% average increase over their 2011 performance. Compare that to the stable year-over-year record in Big Pharma, where doing more with the same amount of cash has become an industry mantra.